In Search For Freedom
by Luna25684
Summary: Alfred is sick and tired of not being himself and only having to obey the will of his people. He wants to be free from the chains he is bound to, especially now that his government seems to be acting all weird and seem to be trying to control him. But is he prepared for what is ahead should he decide to go through with trying to break away from America?
1. The Mysterious Box

**My first Hetalia fanfiction. I've added some OCs (Yes, I know you hate them, I do too, but...) or characters from other anime/manga you might recognize, but just a warning, this is AU-ish, so those characters may be a bit different and may have different situations or background story.**

 **Warming: Not historically accurate, both human names and nation names used (it can get confusing if you don't know who's who), and characters may appear OOCs to you. And I apologize for that. **

**Pairings (not a major focus, but hinted or explained at a bit. Can be ignored.)**

 **And I must apologies before hand for accents. I'm not very good with them, so I won't attempt many, if at all. If you want to do accents, do it as yourself as you read it.**

 **Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Mysterious Box**

He was standing in a green field of grass, wearing a white dress with red ribbon tied around the neck. America watched the small child stare off into the bright blue sky, a happy smile on his face.

"Alfred!" came a sweet voice calling from behind.

Both heads turned towards the new comer. It was a woman in a sky blue dress, walking with another child who looked similar to young Alfred, except this child had purple eyes and the way his blond hair was styled; parting in the middle of his forehead and curly at the ends.

 _'Matthew,'_ America thought, a little shocked at how girly cute his brother looked in that.

The young child's face lit up the moment he saw them and he ran he ran to the woman in blue, calling out, "Mommy!" He reached for her and the woman smiled before picking him up and he cuddled into her hold.

The scene than changed and America found himself looking at the woman in blue laying on the ground, one hand over her bloodied wound while the other reached out to him, her eyes sad yet loving, begging him to com over. But there was another person beside her, and America knew right away who he was. It was Arthur, with his sword drown and pointed off to the side, towards the woman's face.

Eyes hidden behind his bangs and a frown on his face, Arthur, in his red coat, made his way towards little Alfred and Matthew, his coat and the feathers on his hat blowing in the wind. Alfred said nothing as Arthur picked him up and carried him away from the bloodied body on the river bank, little Matthew holding onto Arthur's free hand.

The child looked up at Arthur and was sad at his grim face, eyes hidden in the shadows. Then he looked back to the woman he'd called mother and whispered, "Goodbye mother..." There was more he had muttered out through his tears, but America could not hear. Though whatever it was had caused Arthur to stop in his track, his eyes wide, before continuing on again as if nothing happened.

And the rain continued to pour down as both child and man cried for their lost love and light.

* * *

America woke up with a gasp of breath, sitting up in bed and holding one had to his beating heart. Sweat rolled down his face as he breathed in heavily, reflecting upon the reoccurring dream he'd been having lately. Finally, he got out of bed and got dressed for the day, remembering that he had a meeting to go to with his government conserving a certain topic that has been coming up lately.

America sighed. He doesn't understand why they're making such a big deal out of this. It's been fine like this for centuries now, he doesn't understand why they are not making such a big deal out of the existence of his kind. It's not like he could help his existence. After all, he didn't choose to this, he mused fixing his blue tie.

America laughed into the mirror. Yeah, despite being the country of freedom, he was rarely ever "free". He slide his tie up and fixed it around his neck before picking up his brief case and walked out the door.

* * *

America stomped out into the lawn, his eyes blazing. People got out of his way as he walked past them.

"Those stupid old bastards," he muttered darkly under his breath. "Think they could control me. Stupid... This is just so stupid! Hah-!"

Because he wasn't looking, Alfred found himself coming chest to head with a black haired girl holding some binders to her chest.

"Ah!" said the girl, before looking up. "I'm sorry-" her deep blue eyes met with Alfred's own and the nation felt the atmosphere shift around them as he watched the girl's eyes dulled over. "Hhh. The Mark of the Old..." she whispered out, as if in a trance. Her voice sounded like wind as she looked up above Alfred's head, seeming as though she saw something there. Alfred did not move. He felt as though this child was not one of his people, yet could not identify where she is from. Though by the looks of it, she may be Asia, so maybe Japan but with some mix bloods in there might be the reason why he couldn't quite place her. Though she seems familiar.

Finally, the girl met eyes with Alfred again, and said, _"The curse on you will break soon, and you will return to your former self. To the time long forgotten. A world long lost..."_ She paused, starring off into the sky with longing in her eyes for something far away. Then, she looked back at him again, her eyes once again dulled of emotions. _"He will meet you at 12, and you shall find him at 13. Then, and only than,"_ she emphasized, a hand gripping one of Alfred's own, _"shall you decide,"_ she let's go and eased up her poster again, _"whether or not you wish to break free..."_ She looked up and Alfred saw an eagle, his eagle, flew over their heads. The girl than returned her gaze to him and smiled, _"from this cursive tie..."_ The eagle landed on her outstretched hand as she smirked up at Alfred.

Suddenly, her smile disappeared and the girl fell backwards. Freedom flew off her and landed on Alfred's shoulder just as he reached out and caught her in mid fall. A sent of jasmine washed over him, and Alfred found it somehow relaxing and comforting.

The child opened his eyes and Alfred noted that they we're back to normal again. The world was once again alive and buzzing with people walking past them.

"Oh!" said the child, quickly getting up. "Thank you," she blushed, looking down at her skirt. Alfred was instantly reminded of Japan when he saw her reaction, but the blush was cute, he noted.

"Hey, no problem little missy," said Alfred, smiling back.

The girl blushed harder, gripping the hems of her skirt before looking up when she saw brown wings and then smiled. "Oh, what a pretty bald eagle," she complimented, looking at the strange bird. "May I?" She reached out a hand towards him.

"Sure! Go ahead!" Alfred replied, and she did just that.

"Ahh, he's so obedient." Alfred's eyebrow twitched at that. Though he knew it was meant to be a compliment, he still couldn't help the strange feeling of being insulted. Good thing the girl was not looking his way.

"What's his name?" she asked, eyes still on the bird.

"Freedom." Oh how ironic. Alfred wanted to laugh at that. Yeah, freedom. What a nice word. Too bad his was restricted.

"Freedom," said the girl. "That's a nice name."

Alfred smiled at her gentle look. "He also has a partner!" he said. "Her name's Liberty!"

The girl looked up at him. "Liberty?" She looked down at Freedom and run her pointer finger down his head, a small gentle yet someone sad smile on her face. "What nice names. Fitting... for eagles of the United States of America." Freedom stared at her for a moment before closing his eyes and craving into her gentle touch. "Isn't that nice, Freedom? You'll always have someone by your side..."

"Luna!" Came a shout from somewhere within the crowd.

Alfred turned his body half way around and found a boy up ahead, running towards them, his black eyes set on the girl, Luna.

The boy, Alfred noted, had black hair to go with his eyes, and fair white skin. He was wearing a black suite as though he was going to a funeral or something important. Also, from what Alfred could tell, he seemed to be a few years older than the girl. 'Maybe he's her older brother?' Alfred thought, not able to tell because they were not his people.

Luna looked past Freedom and her face seemed to lit up when she spotted the boy. "Acheron!" she shouted towards the running boy.

 _'Acheron?'_ thought Alfred. _'Now why does that name sound familiar...? Where have I heard it before...?'_

While Alfred was digging through his memories for the familiar name, Acheron locked eyes with Luna and had finally made his way over to them.

"Lumina Willows," said Acheron, his eyes narrowed. "You're late, AGAIN!" Lumina coward a bit at his harden gaze, a small, awkward smile on her face as she looked up at him with guilty eyes.

Alfred snapped out of his thoughts the minute the teen spoke. He wanted to laugh at how much that last sentence reminded him of Arthur. Just add the British accent in there and Alfred would be convinced that Arthur was the one standing beside him. That would've made him jump out of his skin, the last thing Alfred needed right now was Arthur here. But prophase he should pay the man a visit sometime soon to get ride of this stress...

"Sorry Ash," Lumina apologized, handing some of the binders over to Acheron.

"Acheron," interrupted Alfred. "Is that name derived form something?"

Both children looked up at him strangely. Alfred suddenly felt uncomfortable and awkwardly judged when under such powerful gazes for ones so young.

"Umm," he splattered out unintelligently, and not for the first time.

Finally, he gathered his wits together and remembered where he heard that name before. "Oh!" he redeemed himself, snapping his figures. "Greece! Yeah! Right! Acheron, the river of woe in Epirus! One of the five rivers of the underworld right? Hahaha, oh man-! Wait." He stopped his laughter and stared at the smiling boy. "You're named after a river of Hades?!"

"Yes," Acheron answered calmly, a small smile on his face. "You see, my father, or rather, my entire family, has a thing for the underworld, and I guess," he shrugged, looking off to the side, "so do I."

"Oh," said Alfred, finding it a bit strange that a family, or any family family at all really, would have a likeness of any kind for the underworld.

Acheron turned towards Lumina. "Anyways Luna," he addressed her. "We have to go." He looked at the watch on his risk. "We're already late as it is." He grabbed onto Lumina's free arm and pulled her away. "And we still have to find that idiot runaway fox to sigh these." He indicated to the documents in his arms. He muttered some things darkly under his breath and Alfred caught something about Luke and laziness.

Acheron turned to Alfred before walking passed him and said, "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Jones." He lowered his head a bit in a bow.

"Yes, nice meeting you again, Alfred," Lumina smiled as Acheron dragged her passed him. "Let's meet again soon!" She tried to wave with the hand holding the binders.

Alfred smiled and nodded after the two, who were now off. He waved as they went, and thought, _'The moon and the river of woe hah? Why did I suddenly see the image of a girl crying on the banks of a black river, sobbing under the moon, and a boy watching her from his place standing on the surface of said river?'_

"Wait," he interrupted his own train of thought, the smile whipped from his face. "Did they just-? Did I-?" He looked to Freedom and the eagle shrugged as his answer to Alfred's questions. Seeing this, Alfred also shrugged. "Hm, oh well. What were we talking about again? Oh right! Those old geezers," he growled out the last sentence, his eyes going sharp and his face twisted into one of anger as he thought back to the events earlier that day.

Than, his stomach growled and Alfred checked his watch. "Oh," he said with realization. "It's almost 12. No wonder." He scratched his head and looked around. "Hmm, I should get something to eat." A big smile graced his lips. "McDonald's, here I come!" Alfred held up one hand into the air like a superhero and ran towards his car.

Freedom flew away from his shoulder and took to the sky, his eyes gazing down at Alfreda's as he soared away.

* * *

Alfred exited the fast-food joint with a huge bag of McDonalds in his hand. Granted, he could've gone through the drive through, but Alfred rather liked going into the store today, since he wasn't in any hurry to go anywhere, and would like to see and interact with his people. Although, that one guy in there was pretty strange. He kept glaring at Alfred from his place sitting in front of his laptop, and Alfred didn't know why.

But he decided not to care, for nothing was not going to ruin his good mood now that Alfred had a large sized bag of Big Mac in his arms.

Where as one hand was holding the bag, Alfred's other was stuffing his face with a Big Mac and he breathed in the late October air of D.C.

"Ahhh, nothing like a Big Mac to brighten my day," said Alfred, a happy smile on his face as he took a step forward. "Hmm?" A blur rushed passed him and Alfred turned his head to the right, in the direction of the wind.

There, he saw an elementary kid being bullied by three high school boys and was being pushed to the back of the store by them.

Alfred frowned and followed them to the back of the store to find the blond haired child being held up against the wall by one of the older boys, probably the leader, who looked about ready to punch the struggling child.

Alfred locked eyes with the child for a moment, and felt as though he'd seen that shade of blue somewhere before. But couldn't quite remember where. Alfred noted that the kid seemed pretty calm for someone in his predicament, and was wondering why that was. That calmness of his, though good, was probably what got him into this mess to began with.

"Hey!" Alfred called out to the group. "What do you guys think you're doing to him?" He began to walk towards them.

The three teens looked back at him and Alfred felt a suddenly feeling of unpleasantly wash over him. For some reason, his instincts were on high alert and Alfred, his back straight from centuries of training, wars and battles, knew deep in his gut that he had to get rid of these guys, for even though they felt like his people, Alfred knew they were not good news.

"Let him go!" Alfred ordered.

The fact that the teens merely glared back at him meat that he was not able to control them to his will, and that in itself meant either he was loosing his touch, or they weren't his. Than, the person in the middle, the leader motioned with his head for the other two to attack.

The two teens smirked evilly, their eyes red as if possessed by some monsters out for blood, and advanced towards Alfred.

Alfred sighed and shoved the last piece of the Big Mac into his mouth just as both teens ran at him, fist ready to punch his face in.

Alfred ducked, but the teen on the left was apparently better than his partner and so, instead of running off, stopped and brought his fist down. Alfred blocked it with his hand and winched.

 _'Damn,'_ he thought. _'This kid's strong.'_

Than, Alfred noticed the other kid coming back toward him and reached out a leg to kick the boy in the gut and Alfred didn't hold back this time, which worked out well for him in the long run, because the kid ended up spitting up blood and kneeling over in pain. Alfred smirked and began to crush the hand of his other opponent, who'd gotten angry at Alfred's assault on his friend and attacked him from the front while Alfred's glaze was to his friend. Although Alfred knew that these were his own people he was hurting, something in him told him not to hold back against them and he'd listened to it.

The teen's face turned from anger to agony and he tried to get out of Alfred's vice-like grip. Alfred took pity on him and let go when he kicked the teen in the gut, sending him stumbling back a few feet, blood dripping from his mouth and he held his bone crushed hand to his chest.

The leader watched them with a shocked expression on his face before it morphed into one of fiery as he turned to face Alfred. The teen let go of the child and the blond fell to the floor as the leader made his way towards Alfred.

Alfred took a glance at the blond haired child to make sure that he was safe only to see him land gracefully on his feet, unharmed and still calm. But there was something new in his strange blue eyes. Something that Alfred could only described as amusement and recognition, if his pleased smile was anything to go by.

After a mere glance to make sure that the child was okay, Alfred's gaze shifted back to his upcoming opponent, who had pulled out a small dagger and came charging at Alfred. But before the teen could stab him, Alfred caught his knife hand and made him drop the weapon. The teen than tried to hit him, but Alfred punched him in the gut first punched, hard, and sent the teen flying backwards towards the wall, succeeding in making a small dent where the boy's back connected with the concrete.

The wind blew and the two teens quickly stumbled to get to their leader and get away from Alfred. He watched as the two teens shouldered their leader away and out of sight, a frightened look clear on their faces, but at the same time, a hint of resentment that promised revenge was present in their unnatural blood red eyes.

"Hah," said Alfred. "That'll teach them." He dusted his hands and, still holding onto the bag, turned towards the blond haired boy.

The child was now standing in front of him and Alfred looked down at the boy. "You okay kid?" He asked.

The child nodded his head and said, "Thank you, mister. That was amazing, what you did just now."

Alfred placed a hand to his head and laughed. "Well, all in a days work for the hero, I'd say!" he said, and his smile turned warm as he glanced down at the child. "Your welcome, kid." He patted the boy's shoulder. "Say, you're pretty calm about all this." he crunched down to the kid's height. "Can I ask why?"

The kid smiled and said, "Naturally, it'd be, 'may I'. But since I am but a child right now," he looked down at his hand, "I'm not suppose to correct adults, even if they're wrong. And so," he looked up with a tired sigh, "I must answer to the word, 'can I', and my answer is, it's because I knew everything would be alright." He smiled. "And it is." The blond shrugged as if he was used to being right.

Alfred stared at the child for a moment, trying to place him, but was unable to. Finally, he laughed. "Man," he said through laughter. "You reminded me of my former guardian for a moment there." Because his eyes was looking up to the sky, Alfred did not see the sparks in the blonde child's mystic blue orbs.

Alfred sighed and whipped aways his tears before it could fall and his gaze shifted down to the blond. "Kid," he petted the blond on the shoulder. " You're in freaking America. The land of the free! You're free to do whatever you damn want!"

The child smiled and studied Alfred for a moment. Alfred found that he could not look away from the boy, wondering why he seemed so familiar and where he had seen those deep, yet clear blue eyes before.

Finally, the boy spoke. "Thank you... Are you alright, mister?" he asked, studying Alfred's face carefully, a look of concern on his face. "You look old and tired."

Alfred stared at him for a movement, thinking how the kid knew he looked old and tired when others didn't. Than, he broke out into a laugh to try and hide the fact. "Who? Me?" he questioned, standing up. "Old? Tire? Puff, none sense! I'm not old or tired! Not at all! I'm still pretty young, I tell ya!" Alfred took out another burger from the bag and shifted his body to the side, away from the mysterious child, and he started eating the burger slowly.

"... You're a bad liar, you know that?" the child stated, coming to stand in front of him again. "I mean, sure your appearance is young, but..." He looked Alfred up and down and finally rested his gaze on his eyes. "Your demeanor is different." Alfred raised an eyebrow, a bit startled that the kid saw through him. "You act goofy to hide it all, and in actuality, you're very observant, knowledgeable, and responsible. To me, you seem almost ancient... Wise, beyond your age appearance indicates you to be." Alfred stared opened mouth at the child. How could he say that to him when the boy himself is the same?

"So," the boy continued, his wised blue eyes gleaming. "Care to tell me what's really on our mind? I'm willing to listen, if you need me to."

Alfred stared at the boy for a moment. For some reason he could not explain, Alfred found himself relaxing in the presence of this strange boy. The wind blew and the next thing Alfred knew, he was sitting in a bench behind McDonald's, telling the kid all about his troubles.

"And these old geezers think that they could control me like a tool!" he vented out. "I'm not a tool! I'm not some puppet that they can control! I mean, I should have a voice in my own government too right, but is that really what happens? No! No, I never get a say... Never..." His eyes glazed over for a moment, before returning to normal again. "I tried," he mindlessly said. "I really did. But no one ever listens! No one listens... Because to them, I'm too young and inexperience... To him, I'm too young..." The child raised an eyebrow at him and Alfred shook his head to get away from the old memories. "Anyways, I make suggestions to them. I really did. I tell the presidents, but do they ever listen? No! And I can't even vote! Ahh, man if only I can have things done my way..." He looked up to the sky.

"... And do you want to have it done your way?" asked the child, staring up at Alfred with intense eyes not belonging to that of a child, but of an ancient who could see through to a person's inner soul.

"Hah?" Alfred turned towards him, confused.

"What if you had the chance to have things done your way? If you could have your own free will, separate from the people and the land, would you take it?" The kid stood up and smiled down at Alfred. "Do you, Alfred F. Jones," Alfred's eyes widened as he stared up at the boy, for he was sure he had never once introduced himself to this boy, as impolite as it was. Man would Iggy be so mad at him if he ever found this out, "wish to have your own free will and be your own person, or will you choose to remain with the land and its people as the United States of America?" Alfred's mouth dropped and the smiling blond brought out a black wooden box from behind his back and handed it to Alfred.

Alfred continued to stare at the boy for a moment more, apparently still in shock, before blinking and reaching out both his hands to take the rectangular box from the boy. He looked at the elegant box in his hands and noted how nice and well taken care of it looked. The minute the box came into his hand, Alfred almost dropped it because of how heavy it was. The box felt so powerful, yet at the same time, familiar to Alfred, like a distant memory, and Alfred didn't know why.

He noticed that there was a picture of two white globes in the middle of the lid and it seemed to be moving, slowly spinning and coming closer to each other, to the middle. On the side of the box were pictures of beautiful craved leaves and flowers all winding together. In the middle was the elegant carving of a fully bloomed rose, but it's center seemed to be missing something.

 _'A key,'_ Alfred realized, tracing his figures on the 3D rose petals surrounding the black hole, and he wondered where he had seen this familiarly carved box before.

"It's up to you," the boy spoke up, snapping Alfred out of his analyzation.

Alfred looked up and found the child holding a red envelope, with a gold lotus seal on it, out to him. Alfred glanced back and forth between the smiling boy and the envelope before finally taking it.

"To decide what you want to do from here on out," the kid continued. "Will you solve the mystery. Find your answers and be free from the land and it's people? Or will you stay the way you are now, Alfred? It's your decision. You decide where to go from here... Although," he leaned in, hands behind his back and a big smiling on his face, "if you choose not to gave chase, than please take good care of the box until its owner comes to take it back. We all know how much he treasures that box." The boy glanced down at it and Alfred did the same. The child than straightened his postures again, glancing down at Alfred with an evil smirk on his face.

When Alfred looked up, he noticed that the boy's form seemed to be fading in the wind.

The blond smiled warmly and said, " But if you do chose to give chase, than take head of my warnings. It will not be easy to over come, and you will have to fight, so make sure to have weapons with you. However," he held up a figure, his eyes opened and serious as he leaned down to stare Alfred in the eye. "Note that only your fellow nations and other magical creatures are allowed to enter."

The kid stepped back and moved his pointer finger to his lips, his eyes gleaming with mischief and merit. "And be warned young Alfred," he continued. "For the person with the watch knows the time... And he will do anything in his powers to prevent you from getting what you seek." And with that, the boy smiled and his form completely disappeared into the wind.

Alfred stored at the spot where the mysterious boy had been just a moment ago. Than he blinked and looked down at the box. He looked at it for a moment longer before he stood up and turned around to head back to his car. Holding the box with the letter in one hand, carefully tucked between his arms and his side, Alfred checked his watch with the hand holding the McDonald's bag. His eyes widened when he read the time: 12:32 p.m.

 _'He will meet you at 12 and you shall find him at 13,'_ Alfred heard the voice of the little girl echoing in his head. _'Then, and only than, shall you decide, whether or not you wish to break free, from this cursive tie.'_

Alfred's eyes widened in realization and recognition. Making sure that the box and envelope were safely secured, Alfred made a run for his car, all the while remembering back to the mysterious girl named Lumina. Now he remembered where he had seen those eyes before. The eyes of the blond haired boy, they were the same shade of blue as Lumina's...

* * *

 **Please review.**

 **Next chapter: Calling up help.**

 **See who Alfred calls up for help. Also, I'll be introducing a favorite pairing of mine in this one.**


	2. Calling Up Help

**I Would like to thank Ella Rose1 for being the first to Follow and favorite this story as well as Regna of the forest for following this story. This chapter is for you two.**

 **Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Calling Up Help**

Alfred stared at the box in front of him, wondering what he should do with it. It was almost two in the afternoon now, and Alfred had been pacing and pondering about what to do when finally, he searched for his phone in his pants pockets and punched in a number. Alfred put the phone to his ear and waited.

"… Hey Mattie," Alfred uneasily said into the phone. "Yeah... Think you could fly down to D.C., bro? I really need to talk this out with somebody man, I-I…" he ran a hand threw his hair, "I really don't know what to do with this…" he wailed and waited for the replied. "… Thanks bro, see ya soon." He pocketed the phone and went back to sitting on the couch, staring blankly and intensely at the wooden box, all the while trying to figure out why it seemed so familiar to him and where he had seen it before.

* * *

Canada sighed as he sipped his much needed hot coffee. The temperature change in Toronto was really something during the fall, and today was not a good day, for both the weather and his life.

Matthew stared out onto the pond, smiling a bit as he remembered back into the past some long winters ago. The images of him and the white-haired albino skating on the ice together still fresh in his mind.

Matthew shook his head and the image was gone as he stood up and decided to head home. Replaying the horrible events of the day as he walked, Canada wondered why his government is suddenly acting so odd and mysterious. It was one thing that he was already practically invisible to everyone, but it was another to cut off all contacts with them. Just what was his government thinking! They needed the connection!

Matthew's eyes wandered over to the streets and the image of him and Gilbert standing on the sidewalk came into his mind. Another small smile graced his lips before his eyes saddened over and he walked away again. It seemed that no matter where he went, the memories still lingered, even though it's already been four years since… No, Matthew shook his head. He was not going to think about that.

He took another sip of his coffee when suddenly, his phone range and Matthew fished into his pants pockets to get it. He read the caller ID and thought, _'Alfred,'_ a bit taken back. He shrugged and took the call.

"Hello?" he said, holding the phone a little ways away from his ear just in case. After all, it was only two days away from Halloween and who knew with Alfred…

It came as a bit of a shock to Matthew when, instead of excited shouts about Halloween, an uneasy voice of his brother greeted him, and Matthew knew something was up.

"Alfred?" Matthew asked just to make sure, his brows knotted together in worry for the quite and uneasy tone in his brother's voice. "What's wrong eh?" Matthew knew it had to be important if his brother, his loud, big-mouthed, over excited brother, was reduced to speaking quietly with an uncomfortable undertone in his voice.

"… Give me about three hours and I'll be right there eh," he quickly replied, the panic setting in. Matthew nodded at his brother's answer and hang up.

Once he put the phone away, Matthew quickly went home, all the while debating with himself on whether he should call Arthur or someone to inform them of this, but erased that thought from his mind by replacing it with the thought of getting the information out of his brother first before deciding what to do from there on. Instead, he phoned the airport and got himself a first class ticket to Washington D.C. and went home to pack his bag, deciding that by doing this, he'd be staying with Alfred and going with him to the Halloween party being held later in London this year.

* * *

Matthew sighed and went into the kitchen to get some syrup. As soon as he walked in, more memories came back. Matthew could see the image of Gilbert and himself making pancakes together, and Matthew would've stayed lost in the memory had it not been for the interruption that brought him out of it.

"Who are you?"

Canada turned to the side, where a white stuffed bear sat on top of the dining table, a bottle of syrup in between his knees and three more off to the side. His hand and face showed he'd been hungry.

Matthew smiled and said, "I'm Canada." He than began to walk over to the bear and picked him up, moving away all the bottles of syrup. "I think I left you here alone long enough Kumojuki."

"Damn right you did," the polar bear barked right back, and Canada only smiled as he went to throw away the empty bottles into the trash bend. "So how was meeting?"

Matthew's smile dropped and he froze midway into placing the half empty bottle of syrup on the countertop before saying, "I don't want to think about it right now eh." And he moved to get three more bottles out of the cupboard before walking out the room. "Come on. We have to go see Alfred eh."

Hearing the seriousness in Matthew's voice, Kumajirou didn't ask farther and leaped off the table to run into the bedroom after him.

* * *

Alfred continued to stare at the black wooden box in front of him, still pondering where he had seen it and studying the beautiful carvings of vines and flowers around it. In all honesty, the black box looked more like a rectangular shaped coffin to him, for some reason, and it somewhat scared him a bit. If a ghost were to jump out, Alfred really didn't want to be alone. And Tony was no help whatsoever, as he was off playing the latest video game Japan had sent over the other day.

Alfred then moved up to the lid and wondered why there were two white globes there, both slowly turning and looking as though they're moving towards each other to become one.

Alfred didn't know whether to shudder or not at that notion, but he was saved from farther thinking when he took a look at his watch and realized it was almost time for him to go and pick Matthew up from the airport.

Alfred debated whether or not he should bring the box with him, but decided to let it stay home and went to grab his keys and jacket instead.

"Tony!" he called out. "I'm going out! Come and watch over this box for me would ya?!" He waited until Tony came strolling in and he pointed to the black box. "Watch that box for me. Don't loss it. Don't take your eyes off of it unless someone broke into the house or something dangerous happens. If that happens, protect the box! And don't destroy the house!" he ordered and watched as Tony nodded and went to sit on the couch, bringing his legs up and hugging them to his chest as he stared intensely at the box, not once even blinking.

Alfred nodded his head in satisfaction at the scene before walking out the door.

* * *

 _'Finally,'_ he thought, getting up and quickly running towards the gate to meet up with his brother, almost tripping along the way.

Matthew looked up at the face of his normally excited brother, and as usual, was greeted with a bone-crushing hug. But instead of the usually loud greetings, he got a whisper of relief from his loud counterpart.

"Thank god," Alfred breathed out, a smile gracing his lips as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the comfort of his brother's touch.

"A-Alfred?" Matthew questioned, a bit worried about his brother's odd behavior while at the same time, trying to get out of the man's strong hold and trying hard to breathe some life back into himself.

"Oh, right," said Alfred, realizing himself and hesitantly released Matthew from his stronghold. He grabbed Matthew's bag from the Canadian's hands before leading them towards the car.

"Thanks for coming, bro. I really don't know what to do with this, and I wasn't about to phone Arthur 'cause he'd yell at me, ya know?" said Alfred.

"Yell at you?" questioned Matthew, holding Kumajiro with both arms and looking confused at Alfred. "Why would Arthur yell at you eh? What did you do?"

Instead of shrugging like he'd normally do, Alfred let out a deep sigh. "I think it's better if I show it to you," he said with a grim face, and started walking faster towards his car.

"Al-" Matthew called after him, before catching up. "What's this all about, Alfred?"

"I'll tell you when we're in the car."

* * *

Alfred unlocked his car and put Matthew's bag into the backseat before going to sit in the driver's seat. Matthew watched him and Alfred sighed again before beginning the story as he pulled out.

"You know how I always complain about work sometimes?" he asked, pulling the car out.

"Yeah," Matthew nodded. "Considering you keep calling me and Arthur up to complain about it all the time eh… But what about it?"

Alfred sighed again as he drove towards the main road. "Today was one of the worst… I had to roll back and forth between the two carpets too many times to even count, and they were both acting weird."

Despite knowing how the two Houses were like, thanks to Alfred's big mouth and many complaints, hearing this still peaked Matthew's interest instantly. "Weird?"

"Yeah! Instead of telling me what they want and trying to talk things out like we normally do, they seem to want to control me, Mattie! And Prez was all OK with it!"

"And how's that weird?"

"… I've had my fair shares of opinions and restrictions... Of bad bosses and government, Matt. And I am given free regain over certain things… but it's still frustrating when they don't listen and now seems to want to take away even more of my freedom! I mean I'm the god damn freaking U.S. of A for fuck sakes! The land of the free! They can't just do that to me! They can't just suddenly tell me to sit still and obey them like I'm some kind fucking tool! I mean, I'm their fucking country!" Matthew kept glancing from the road o his brother ever so often in fear they'd crash due to Alfred's temper.

"Ever since the last election," Alfred continued, calming down a bit, "it seems like more of my free will is being restricted, Matt, and I hate that! I hate that. So much… and what happened this morning was the last straw, man."

"And what happened eh?" Matthew questioned, eyeing the road uneasily.

Alfred just continued to stare down the road, his face now blank and his eyes void of all emotions. "They threatened me, Mattie," he answered.

"T-threatened you?" Matthew questioned, looking at Alfred and seeming a bit shocked as he held onto Kumajiro tightly, afraid to loss another person important to him.

"Yeah," Alfred replied. "Or at least, I think they did. They certainly hinted at it. Saying that I wasn't one of them and that they could find ways to dispose of me if they don't think I'm good enough…"

"Oh, Al." Matthew's eyes saddened over and he placed a hand on his brother's shoulder for comfort.

Alfred's eyes also saddened over, a small smile tugging at the bottom of his lips. "Threatened by my own people… isn't that just great, bro?"

Matthew didn't know if he should bring up his own little problem or not, but decided against it. For now, he should just focus on Alfred's problems. "So what did you do after that eh?"

"I walked out, obviously," Alfred replied. "And than I bumped into a strange little girl who said some freakishly strange things…"

Matthew was suddenly reminded of his own strange encounter with a blonde haired, blue eyes girl. Even though it was only a run in at the airport on his way here, Matthew wondered why those strange blue eyes still haunted him and what it was about the little girl that still made him remember her. Matthew was snapped out of his thoughts when Alfred spoke up again.

"She said something like a curse put on me-"

"That sounds like something Arthur would do eh," Matthew whispered into the head of his little bear.

"What?" Alfred snapped his head to look at him.

"Nothing."

Alfred returned his gaze to the rood. "So she said something about a cruse… the Mark of Old, whatever that means, and than about me meeting someone… oh, and something about a world long forgotten and my former self… I think. Yeah, it went something like that."

"Doesn't that just make you think of the conquering days, Alfred?"

"Hmm… that never crossed my mind actually, but now that ya mention it…" Matthew almost flipped out when Alfred admitted to not having thought of that instead of shouting out and taking credit for it. Whatever had happened must've been important and had a great deal of an affect on his brother for him to be acting like this.

"Oh!" Matthew was once again started out of his thoughts by the sound of Alfred's loud voice. "And I did actually meet someone, and I think it was the person Luna, the name of the girl, told me I'd meet, because I'm pretty sure I met him at 12, just as she said I would man! And that freaked me out a bit. But that's not all. The kid, the boy I meet after her, give me a weird box and told me I could break away from the land if I can open the box, man!"

"Okay. So you opened the box eh?"

"What? No! I don't have the key. Besides… That box was… I don't know what it is about it, but it reminds me of something I've seen before, but I just don't remember where. And there's just this… really weird feeling I have about it and I'm… I'm a little scared of it, Matthew." Matthew was startled by the fact that Alfred said his name and looked at him with such a face. "I don't know if I want to open it or not, because it really reminds me of a tomb-"

"Ghosts eh," Matthew sighed.

"-But at the same time, I want to open it, but then I don't! Ya… I think you'll know what I mean when you see it."

They finally turned into the drive and Alfred parked the car.

* * *

"So… this is the box?" Matthew questioned, looking down at the black box on the table.

"Yeah," Alfred replied from behind him, having placed Matthew's bag in a spare room already. "You can go now, Tony. Thanks."

"Whatever fuckers," waved Tony, leaving the room. Matthew can only give a small chuckle at his language as the alien walked past and Alfred walked over to sit down on the couch.

Once the alien was gone, Matthew turned back to his brother, who was now studying the black box with intensity, trying to figure it out. He walked over and sat down beside him.

"So what do you think of it?" Alfred asked, eyes never once leaving the box, as if afraid it'd do something, like spit out ghosts or zombies like in Chinese movies.

"Well it certainly is strange eh," Matthew answered, also studying it, especially the lid and the rose. "And I agree with you completely. It feels like I've seen it somewhere before, but I don't remember where eh. The memory is a little hazy… and you were right to say it feels like a tomb of some sort. I'm feeling really afraid of it, yet at the same time, I want to open it, really badly eh. But I'm shaking it fear of it… And I don't know why, just… something tugging at my… something."

"Right?! You get that feeling too?!" Alfred stood up and looked at him. Matthew nodded, never once taking his eyes off the strange box. Alfred sat down and ran a hand threw his hair, taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes. "I know I asked for this… but I'm…" he opened his eyes, "a little lost on what to do right now, bro. Should I open it? What do you think, Matt?"

Matthew continued to stare at the box, thinking about his own troubles with his government and about what Alfred had just told him in the car. _'Maybe I should tell him,'_ he thought. _'It might shine some light on things. After all, everyone of us countries has had some sort of problems with our government at some point in our live, so it may not just be us experiencing this…'_

"Alfred," Matthew finally spoke up. "You remember what you told me, in the car eh? About your government and how it seems like they're trying to control you?" He looked up at his brother.

"Yeah," said Alfred. "What about it?"

Matthew looked down. "I had the same thing happen to me too eh."

"What?!" He quickly jerked up, eyes wide as he stared at his brother.

"Granted, it wasn't as bad as yours eh. They just wanted to isolate me, it seems… they wanted me to cute ties with everyone… and you know my… relationship with my boss eh…" Matthew sighed.

"Yeah," said Alfred, sitting back down, his brows knotted together as he tried to recall what he knew of Canada's new boss. "He's never liked you, right?"

Matthew nodded. "We never really got along and rarely ever talk with each other eh…"

"What are you trying to say, Matt?" Alfred narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Matthew.

Matthew looked Alfred in the eyes as he answered, "I don't think we're the only ones facing such strange governmental problems right now, Al… I think we should give it a try eh. And tell everyone about it too eh. At the Halloween party, I mean."

Alfred studied him and smirked when he saw the determined look burning in Matthew's eyes. The only time that happened with his brother was when it involved hockey.

Alfred smirked. "All right, then," he said, moving his hand towards the red envelope with a gold lotus seal on the table, beside the black box.

Matthew watched as Alfred opened the envelope and pulled out a black card.

"What is that?" he asked his brother.

"The clue on finding the key… I think," replied Alfred, reading the black card lined with two white lines around the edges and written in white ink. "Here, listen to this." Alfred put the card in between them and Matthew moved closer to get a better look as Alfred read:

 _"You will find me in the burning city_

 _Of blood and tears_

 _Great and rich with golden history_

 _Atop the tower with four faces_

 _Which sits beside the seat of power_

 _And provides order"_

Alfred looked at Matthew. "Any idea where that is?" he asked.

"It could be anywhere eh," Matthew replied. "Burning city," he pointed towards the first line on the card. "That could be anywhere eh." He looked back Alfred. "A lot of cities burnt down throughout the course of history, you know that eh." Alfred nodded, his eyes gone a little blank and Matthew lowered his head a bit, feeling somewhat guilty for bringing it up.

"Okay," said Alfred. "So that little line's fucking useless than, considering a lot of cities got burned down throughout the course of history. From war or otherwise." Matthew nodded in agreement, his lips set on a frown and his worried eyes not leaving his brother's face. "So the next line than," Alfred continued. "Blood and tears."

"Burning city of blood and tears eh… again, not really helping, since it's pointing us towards war again eh. And we know that there's a lot of that eh," Matthew pointed out, eyes gone a little sad at the mention of past wars.

"But now we can be sure that it's about a burning done during war time, or something along that line instead of natural disasters!" Alfred smiled in excitement at his findings.

"No, Al. We can't be sure of that eh," Matthew shook his head at his brother and looked down at the letter. "People die and cry in the burning eh. Whenever there is blood spilled, someone always cries eh."

"True… next line than. Great and rich with golden history… history… golden history… It's in America!" Alfred shouted out, standing up and making a heroic pose.

"How so?" Matthew asked, his head titled sideways in confusion.

Alfred turned towards him and grabbed both of Matthew's shoulders, startling Matthew as he stared into Alfred's gleaming eyes. "Think about it, Mattie! I'm the one with the Enlightenments, the revolutions, the Californian gold rush and stuff! I'm the hero and everyone looks up to me! I have a golden history about being the first to win against Great Britain!" He let go and put his hands on his elbows. "Hahahaha!"

"Eh…" Matthew sweet dropped. "Since you brought up England, I think golden history can also be referring to Europe or Asia eh. Or even North Africa eh. They have a much longer recording of history than we do, after all." This made Alfred sit down and pout like a child for being wrong.

"Alright, I get it Mattie," Alfred sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance. "We're young. Let's go to the next line! 'Tower with four faces'…" he looked at Matthew, confused. "What kind of tower has four faces?"

"Maybe it's talking about a castle eh?"

"If it's a castle, then it's in Europe… That's it!" Alfred stood up, his face happy. "It's in Europe! The key's in Europe, Mattie! It's definitely talking about imperialism. Just look at the last line that says power and order! That's got to be Europe! IT SCREAMS EUROPE with all its bad blood! We've figured it out, we've figure it out!" Alfred held up the card and danced around like a monkey. "Hah, we outsmart you, you stupid riddle! Never try to go against us, because we know all the things that went down in history!"

"Actually, no we don't Alfred," Matthew countered. "We don't know what really happened with the Ancients and beyond eh." This got Alfred to stop dancing. "We can only theorize eh. And besides," he reached for the card, "we don't even know which country in Europe it is eh." This got Alfred to stick his tong out at Matthew like a little child.

Matthew sighed. "Why don't we just wait until Halloween eh? We can solve it with everyone else and than ask them to help search. Besides, Halloween is only two days away eh. You can wait that long, right Alfred?"

Alfred shrugged. "I guess," he replied. "So I'm guessing we'll be going together than?"

Matthew nodded. "You dragged me down here. Now you're stuck with me eh…" he sighed. "For some reason, I feel like it's worse for me eh."

"Don't worry, bro!" said Alfred, hugging him around the shoulders with one hand. "We'll do something fun together before we have to go to Iggy's boring-old-place!"

"Hm… Maybe we should go there early and tell Arthur about this eh," Matthew suggested. "I mean, he is pretty smart and lived through a lot eh. Not to mention his black magic." The last sentence, Matthew whispered off to the side. "… Maybe he'll know the answer to this riddle, Al." He looked up at Alfred.

"Hmm," Alfred thought about it. "It'll take us about seven or eight hours to get there, if we go there by plane. And Iggy's place is five hours ahead of us… we should probably leave at one or two on Halloween so we could be there by four or five. What do ya think, bro?"

"That's fine eh," Matthew shrugged.

Alfred nodded and smiled. "So, what are you wearing to this year's Halloween, man?" He frowned. "What's this year's theme again?"

Matthew looked at his brother in shock and disbelief. "You don't even know what the theme is eh?" he asked. "How did you pick your costume eh?"

Alfred shrugged. "Been a bit busy, so I haven't picked one yet," he replied.

Matthew faced-plumed himself. He could not believe it. His brother, his over excited brother who usually loves things like this and goes overboard with them, didn't get a costume for Halloween yet.

"Come on then," he said, dragging Alfred towards the door. "Let's go find you one eh. That is, if there's still some left eh. If not… well, we still have time to make one, I guess."

"Wait, Mattie! You didn't tell me the theme yet! The theme!"

"Historical eh."

"What?! That is so boring! It's not even scary! No wonder it's at Iggy's place!" Matthew sighed. "Tony, we're going out! Watch the house!"

* * *

A male voice began to sing and both children could feel themselves being rocked back and forth by someone in red.

 _You're in my arms, don't you worry_

 _I'll tend to you, as you grow older_

 _It's been fate that we have met_

 _Just sleep in my tender arms_

 _Don't worry about any harm_

 _I'm right here_

 _With you_

Both Alfred and Matthew shot up in bed and breathed heavily from the dream. It all felt so familiar, yet they couldn't seem to remember from where. What had happened in the end of that song? And who was the man in red they'd run up to?

* * *

 **Declaimer: Song belongs to Aerelya (m1ch1k0).**

 **Can anyone guess the riddle?**

 **Next Chapter: To Iggy's Place We Go**

 **Introducing the Kirkland family and a few other characters. Find out how Arthur reacts to the strange box Alfred brought in!**

 **Please REVIEW!:)**


	3. To Iggy's Place We Go!

**Wow. So many reviews for the last chapter, I can't believe it. Maybe I should put more questions at the end of the chapters so you guys would review more.**

 *****Again, I apologize for OOCness and for grammar and spelling. I check, But I always miss something.**

 **Also, have I ever mentioned what year this story is taking place in? If not, than...**

 *****NOTICE: THIS STORY TAKES PLACE IN THE YEAR 2017!**

 **Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: To Iggy's Place We GO**

Both Matthew and Alfred were standing in front of Arthur's old European style mansion, both dressed in their costumes.

Alfred tagged at his white-laced caller and complained, "Man this is itchy. Why did Arthur had ta go for historical, of all themes?! Pirates would've been better than this!"

Matthew sighed. In the end, they ended up having to dig through Alfred's closet and was lucky enough to have come across a blue costume that could be passed off for the Industrial Revolution period. They even found a silver pocket watch, buried somewhere deep within the closet and only found by accident when light shone on it, to go with it (think cardverse). Of course, they came across one of the old uniforms from the American Revolution too, and Alfred was tempted to wear that just to spite Arthur, but Matthew would have none of it and threatened to wear his from 1812. That got him to shut up.

Matthew on the other hand, was wearing a green 18th century costume consisting of a green over coat and a green waistcoat with small pictures of leaves and flowers printed all over it. He also had white silk cravat around his neck and laces around his hands. His breech was an ugly green color, with white stripes going down it and worn over white stockings, and finally black shoes. On his head was a black three-cornered hat with a dirty green flower on one side.

"Alfred," said Matthew. "Pirates are a part of history eh."

"What?!" Alfred whipped his head to look at his brother. "So I could've been a pirate?!"

"You could've been a pirate, Jack the Ripper, Chinese zombies, or mummies eh. All of those are a part of history, something that happened in the past eh. Heck even a dead soldier from war would've worked eh!"

"Whaaa…"

Matthew began to move towards the door. "But there was no way to do that, since your costume was last minute eh. And you threw out your costumes from previous years because you said they were old and you didn't want to wear the same costume twice eh."

"Damn. Should've save some," cursed Alfred quietly before running to catch up with his brother.

Matthew rang the doorbell and was surprised to see who opened the door for him. So much so, he almost took a step back.

"Oh hey, Dylan!" shouted Alfred, waving as he came closer.

"Alfred," said Dylan, otherwise known as the personification of Wales, not noticing Matthew at all. "Sao it wor theur... (So it was you) strange, theur usually don't 'od afta 'un tin... (you usually don't wait after one ring) In fact, theur don't even beeam ta rin most o' t' tahhm... (you don't even bother to ring most of the time)"

Instead of trying to get Dylan to notice him, Matthew studied the older man's choice of clothing. Like his brothers, Dylan had forest green eyes, but had messy light brown hair that looked almost blonde. He was dressed in a green uniform much like the one Arthur wore in WWII, except he had two white stash going threw it like a cross, a red tie, and a long brown coat over it. And, instead of wearing dark brown boots, he wore black dress shoes. Dylan also wore white gloves and had a small red dragon on his shoulder, and Matthew knew from experience that that thing was very much alive and could very well breathe fire and literally burn a forest to the ground.

"What are you doing here at Iggy's place, man?" Alfred asked, finally standing in front of the door.

"I've bin livin 'eear, actually," Dylan answered, his eyes moving to the opposite side of Matthew.

"Wha…?" That was a little shocking, considering the tension going on between the UK brothers, now and in the past.

"Yeah. Eva sin twoa days agoa, when Arthur collapsed."

"What? Iggy's sick? What happened?" Alfred sprinted passed Dylan, who's reflex was quick enough to move out of the way and let him pass, and into the house. "IGGY!"

Dylan sighed and left the door opened as he walked off after Alfred, shaking his head, a small fond smile on his face.

Matthew took this opportunity to walk into the house and quietly closed the door behind him, all the while thinking how dangerous it was for Dyland to forget to close the door, but also thankful that he didn't close said door in Matthew's face like how the others would usually do. He guessed that it ran in the family prophase, which was a bit strange, but now that Matthew thought about it, was true. For some reason, all the Kirklands seemed to always leave the doors open or forget something that could later be convenient for or useful to Matthew. And they only ever seem to do it whenever Matthew was around. Even Arthur sometimes doses it, but of course, it's usually because he's busy scolding Alfred for one thing or another, and thus, forgets nearly everything else. Sometimes, Matthew truly wonders about them.

But of course, only Scotland seems to take much notice to him. And it's really sad to say that, considering it was Arthur who raised him and whom he stood by for so long, yet it was the eldest of the Kirkland brothers who usually acknowledges Matthew or notices him the most despite his few years in Canada.

"Who are you?" Kumajiro spoke up.

"I'm Canada," smile Matthew, before following Dylan farther into the house.

* * *

"IGGY!" Alfred shouted, running into the living room, where Arthur was seated, sipping tea. He ran up to him and almost had Arthur spilled his tea. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"Alfred," said Arthur, holding a hand up to stop the boy from fussing over him.

"WHY DID YOU COLLAPSED, MAN?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" And he kept on talking despite the clear annoyance Arthur was showing.

Arthur's eyebrows knitted together and he soon found himself more and more irritated by the minute.

"Alfred," Matthew whispered, standing beside a smirking Dylan as they both watched the others in the room move back a few feet, some taking their cups and plates with them. Or in Ivan and Alistair's cases, their individual bottles of alcohol.

Finally, Arthur snapped. "SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU BLOODY WANKER!" he shouted, standing up and almost knocking Alfred over. "I AM PERFECTLY FINE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR CONCERN! NOW CALM DOWN AND HAVE A SEAT LIKE A CIVILIZED PERSON FOR ONCE!" He put a hand to his temple and slumped back down onto his red armchair. "God, I'm having a bloody headache..."

Alfred quietly sat down in the only empty chair beside Arthur, and the African girl sat down his tea and sweets in front of him.

Alfred grumbled as he held up his cup of, as he so says, bitter tea to his mouth before turning a sharp gaze to Dylan just as the others returned to their seats.

"What the hell, Dylan?" he shouted at the older man. "You said he was sick! He looks fucking fine to me! And I hate tea!" He looked at Arthur. "Don't you have coffee?"

"Sorry, Alfred," Seamus, otherwise known as the personification of Northern Ireland, spoke up, an apologetic smirk on his face. "Arthur dumped all our coffee out yesterday, and we haven't the time to restock." He was dressed as Robin Hood, and like his brothers, had forest green eyes, but his hair was a dark brownish-red in color.

"Damn," Alfred cussed.

Arthur glared up at his smirking brother, who locked eyes with him, and he muttered something about house rules. "I was not sick," Arthur countered out loud, sounding grumpy. "There was no reason for me to be sick, you twit!" He moved his gaze back to glare at his smirking brother.

"But Dylan said you collapsed, Iggy!"

"Only from stress!" Arthur answered quickly, looking defensive. "And don't call me that! My name is Arthur!

"Stress?" Alfred questioned, curious and concerned. And as always, he ignored Arthur's name corrections, or any corrections he gave, really.

"Yes, stress." Arthur slumped back down and nursed his aching head, not wanting to say anything more about his name, since it seemed to be useless anyways. "I'm allowed to have those at times, am I not?" Than he whispered, bring his teacup up to his lips and his eyes glancing off to the leg of Alfred's chair. "And your presence is really not helping me any." He eyed the blue bag in Alfred's hand with something akin to dislike in his eyes. Matthew thought it may have something to do with their usual Halloween pranks...

"Why were you stress, Iggy?"

"None of your business, git, AND MY NAME IS NOT IGGY!" Arthur whacked Alfred on the head with one of his old, fancy, hard covered books that was sitting at the table.

"Yep, he seems perfectly fine to me," Alfred laughed merrily, catching Arthur's thrown book with his other hand. Arthur looked really to explode.

"Now calm down, Big Brother," came a childish voice off to the other side of Arthur. Alfred's eyes hardened into a glare as he looked to the Russian who had dared to put his big pale hand on Arthur's small shoulder. "You'll collapse again, if you're not too careful."

"Get your hands off of him, you Commie Bastard," Alfred growled, slapping the Russian's hand away and standing protectively in front of Arthur.

Matthew sighed. "Russia is not a communist anymore, Alfred," he whispered, but as always, no one heard him.

"Alfred, Ivan is no longer a communist!" Arthur scold, once again standing in between the two major world powers. "Grow up!"

"But Iggy-" Alfred whined.

"No buts. End of discussion." He lowered his voice. "Honestly, sometimes you make me want to..." Arthur's voice disappeared as he sat back down and took another sip of his tea to calm himself and ease his thumping headache.

"I hope you burn your tongue on that, you Tea-Addict Jerk," whispered the brown haired girl as she walked past Arthur, who had his tea up and merely followed her with his gaze. Both of them had a frown on their faces as the girl carried the silver tray back into the kitchen.

Matthew, who was now sitting on the chair next to the couch, opposite from Arthur and next to a smirking Alistair and his rum, noted that his sister was wearing a Southern Belle costume. It was white, with green linings around the hems and waist. Her light brown hat was placed on the table, next to Arthur's blue top hat, but she wore her white gloves on her hands and her hair was still in two pigtails tied by the red ribbons Francis had given her long ago. There was also a silver bracelet on her hand, and Matthew could make out a gold necklace shinning around her neck, running down into her shirt so that he couldn't see what the chain contained.

 _'Strange,'_ he thought. _'Seychelles doesn't usually dress herself like this… since it's historical, I thought she'd be more… colorful eh…'_

By than, Dylan had disappeared into the kitchen to help Michelle.

"Wonten' want you wailin' on the ground again, now do we, wee Artie (won't want you wailing on the ground again, now do wee, little Artie)," commented the Scottish man beside Irina, who wore her traditional Ukrainian outfit and was sitting next to Ivan, who wore a long blue coat with gold linings and a red and white cloth tied at the waist, forming a bow on one side. He also had on white pants, black shoes, and a blue solar hat. And of course, his usual white scarf was worn nicely around his neck, as per usual.

"I wasn't wailing," Arthur grumbled out, taking a sip of his tea as his eyes trialling off to the side.

"Could've fooled me," said Alistair, taking another swing of his rum.

"I hope you shook on that, you Scottish bastard."

"Dourly noted, barin brother (duly noted, baby brother)." Alistair's eyes shifted to Seamus, who was standing over him.

 _'Hmm,'_ mused Matthew. _'It seems all the Kirkland brothers are here today eh. I wonder why...?'_

"T-! Damn it, Peter!" Arthur shouted, standing up with hot tea now all over him.

"Haha!" laughed the little boy in his elf costume. "I got you now, Arthur! Now you have to recognize me! The great Sealand, as a country!" The boy ran before the lion could grab him, and skipped off towards the girl dressed as Juliet and holding a rabbit in her arms.

 _'And as usual,'_ Matthew noted, _'Wendy has her hair pulled up to one side and still with that red tropical flower from one of Seychelles' islands on her hair eh. But I wonder what she's doing here all alone, and where Jett and Joseph went off to eh…?'_ He looked around in search for the Australian that usually accompanies Wy. And with him usually comes New Zealand.

Arthur was seething by now, and looked about ready to take out his wand. Dylan came out of the kitchen, a wet cloth in hand and he handed it to Arthur to clean his clothes. Arthur took it without a word, still grumpy.

"Careful Arthur," came a singsong voice from the kitchen. "You're blood pressure~."

"I don't have a bloody-!" started Arthur, but for some reason, he stopped mid sentence and took out his phone. He looked at the caller ID and frowned before throwing it to Michelle.

Michelle caught the phone upon coming out of the kitchen and, confused, answered it, "Bonjour?... Francis? ...Oui, c'est Michelle (Yes, it's Michelle). Ca va, mon frere (Are you alright/How are you, brother)?"

 _'Now that was strange eh,'_ thought Matthew, his head up and sitting a bit straighter. _'Why would Arthur give a phone call from Francis to him to Michelle, of all people? Doesn't he just usually hang up...?'_

"Ouch! Watch it, Peter!" Wendy shouted out from her place next to Alfred, almost dropping the teacup in her hand.

"Sorry," Peter apologized for backing up against her.

"Honestly, that Jett," the child grumbled into her tea. "Why couldn't he have taken me with him and Josh?"

 _'Ah,'_ Matthew thought. _'So Australia and New Zealand are off together somewhere eh... I wonder what they're doing...?'_

"Speaking of which," Arthur spoke up, his attention now shifting towards Alistair and Seamus. "Why don't you two go meet up with the lads at the school. I'm sure they'll be needing your help soon enough."

"Right-o," said Seamus, strangely listening to Arthur's words for once, and headed toward the door.

"Can't I finish my drink first?" complained Alistair, but got up anyways. However, he did not go to Seamus right away and instead, stared down at Irina, who stared up at him in confusion.

Matthew noted that Alastair was not wearing his traditional Scottish kilt, probably to avoid getting into a blow with those who insulted his kilts and calls them skirts (Arthur), and instead, was wearing a blue coat lined with gold pattern at the edges, and a blue vest. His breeche was also blue, with white stockings and black shoes like Matthew. Except his had a gold square in the middle. His white cravat had gold laces at the bottom, and he was also wearing white gloves. He also had a black hat with him, the tips lined with gold. It was the same outfit as the one he had worn to the 2005 Halloween party in Denmark, and probably the same one he'd worn centuries ago, when Arthur started building up his empire and had soon turned into a pirate, leaving Alistair to chase him down and bring the young lad back to England for Elizabeth's funeral and to turn into a privateer so he would be grounded to England instead of going off on his own again.

Matthew had heard that Arthur had not returned to England much after turning into a pirate, and soon not at all. He had ran from his own government and duties for a long time, leaving all the work to Queen Elizabeth I. But for some reason, he had came back despite so many successful attempts of getting away. Not many knew the true reason of why he had returned after being able to get away from all attempts at capturing him, but they guessed that it may have something to do with Elizabeth's death, England's growth, and prephase it was also for Alfred's sake.

Only Alistair seemed to truly know the real reason why Arthur had returned, having been the one to capture him and his crew on some small island in the Indian Ocean back in 1609. Though Arthur had said that he had surrendered willingly, strange as it was. But when asked why, he'd never tell the truth and would only lie. Once he had said that it was for the safety of the people on the small island, but Gilbert, who seemed to know the truth as well, had argued to that fact, and had said that Arthur only surrendered because he was whipped, not because he cared, considering what he did to the people of that island afterwords. But before Gilbert could explain further what he had meant by that, and probably tell them the whole truth, Arthur had swiftly moved across the table and covered his mouth, whispering something into his ears that had Germany, who was sitting next to his brother, staring at him in frozen shock and, prephase terror? The two had argued a bit and Arthur had dragged the Prussian out of the room to continue their private (no one was able to listen in on them no matter how hard they tried) conversation. All Ivan had to said to that was that he loved warm, tropical climates and warm waters, and would have wanted to do the same as Arthur and take the island all for himself, or become one with it, had his existence not already been committed. Kiku could only sigh and pity Prussia for his big mouth, but had said that he too liked the place, as it was similar to his own country and he wished he was as daring as Arthur, all the while starring at Taiwan, who was happily talking with Seychelles and telling her how glad she was that her best friend was no longer under the full control of the old British bastard of a kidnapper. Kiku had only sighed and muttered that he too, was old.

Both Alistair and Irina stared at each other in silence for a moment, and no one interrupted them as no one seem to notice Matthew, and Seamus was patiently waiting at the door, his eyes gleaming and mouth forming a smirk in a sort of knowing way. Dylan and Alfred were happily talking with each other about something, and Peter and Wendy were arguing over some childish matters of theirs. Michelle was still on the phone with Francis, talking in rapid whispered French since everyone knew Arthur did not allow such language spoken in his presence. And even though everyone knew how much Michelle loves to annoy Arthur by talking in French, it seemed that this event was serious enough that she did not want him to hear it. And if Arthur did hear her, he paid her no mind.

"Can I take her with me?" Alistair asked, pointing to the confused Ukraine.

"Eh?" Irina questioned.

Everyone looked to Ivan, who was sitting on the other side of Arthur and next to Alistair on the couch. Ivan merely took another swing of his vodka, his smile still on his face. Irina looked like a shaking Latvia right than, afraid of her little brother starting a fight with the Scottish man who seemed to be wooing her.

"Hmm?" Ivan looked at them all, his smile never once leaving his face, but only got bigger and, dare Matthew say it, more genuinely happy? "It's her choice," he said.

Alistair smile. "Okay then," he said, grabbing onto Irina's arm. "Let's go." And he led the confused Ukraine towards the door where the smirking Seamus was still waiting for them.

As soon as they got to the door and was about to open it, the door broke open and Michelle looked up from her phone call. Everyone looked toward the red eyed figure at the door and Arthur looked vivid, standing up and gaping at his broken door.

"My door!" he shouted, looking as though he was about to shoot someone for his door being torn down, again.

Arthur cannot count just how many times he had had to replace that damned, litterly, door since 1991. Before that, he could, but after that... Between Alfred, Natalia, Gilbert, sometimes Ivan, and the occasional Danish axe wielding man, as well as that one time occasion with Ludwig in 1993 (can't forget that)- and boy was he angry- damned that Gilbert, and other peoples who dropped by either unexpectedly or uninvited, it became a little hard to keep track of.

Where as Arthur was opened mouth and seeming as though he wanted to cry for the fate of yet another one of his doors, he might as well not replace it again, Ivan on the other hand, looked like he was about ready to boat out of there. The colors on his face was drained and he looked like a little lost mouse, looking around every which was for a way out.

"N-," was all he said before running to hide behind Arthur, cowering like a small child in serious trouble.

"Big brother," Natalia said in a creepy voice, scaring Matthew into hugging Kumajiro tighter to his chest. It seemed that she didn't change her costume at all. "I finally found you~. Now, we can get married~." She stepped closer to him. "Marry me, marry me, marry me," she kept chanting as she walked closer towards him and Arthur.

"No, g-go away~!" Ivan wailed from behind the smaller man.

"Hahaha," Alfred laughed, standing up with a hand on his hip and another pointing at Ivan. "Oh man, this is priceless. You're scared of your own little sister! Hahaha! Ohh, I wish I had a camera with me right now! Hahahaha!"

Ivan glared at him, knowing that Alfred was only doing this out of spit. Ivan knows that Alfred fears Natalia as well, and he knows Alfred knew about his troubles with his sisters. He knows that Alfred had just wanted to rube it in his face, but Ivan wouldn't say anything, for Arthur's sake, he wouldn't. Not after that one way ticket to hell at the 2006 Christmas party in America.

"Big brother~. Come to me and let's get married~."

"No! Never! Go away! Big brother, save me!" Ivan leached onto Arthur even more, who still looked vivid at his broken door, and Natalia was at her limits, glaring at Arthur and taking out some daggers from under her dress.

Alfred's laughter died down at that, and he moved to the pair. "Hey," he said, eyes narrowed into a glare. "Let go of Iggy. You're choking him. And he's not your brother!" He tried to pull the two apart, but Ivan's hold was too strong and Arthur was starting to turn green from the, once more, struggle between the two great powers of the world.

"Ahh, guys," Matthew spoke up at seeing Arthur's face and how he struggled to get out or get someone to help. Seeing as how the other Kirklands were just smirking at them, Irina was panicking and trying to calm Natalia down, which she ignored, and Michelle was still on the phone while the children talked with each other, Matthew noticed that Arthur seemed to be reaching out to him and decided to go help his old guardian. Though Peter did laugh and pointed at Arthur while Wendy just face-palmed herself while Michelle took secret glances now and than, her face worried either from the talk on the phone or for Arthur. But Matthew doubted that it was for Arthur's sake though.

Matthew had stood up to go and help Arthur, but the older Kirklands, or rather, Alistair's out stretched arm (how he got there so fast, Matthew didn't know), stopped him from going farther. He looked up at the smirking man, who's eyes was solely on the scene before them and an amused and satisfied look appeared on his face. Matthew sighed at this family's relationship and continued to watch it all play out before him as well, knowing that it was useless to try and stop them and save Arthur now that Alistair had stepped in. Arthur seemed to have realized this as well, and he glared at his older brother, but Ivan's grip on him made him stop.

"No! You stay away, Al'fred!" shouted Ivan, dragging Arthur back with him and away from both Natalia's blades and Alfred's reach.

"Ack!" cried Arthur, having the air knocked out of him by the sudden motion.

Matthew sighed. Ever since the fall of the USSR and Ivan's mysterious disappearance in the December of 1991, he came back acting as a different person to Arthur, always calling him 'Big Brother' and seeming really closed to him, always following him around and sticking to his side, for some reason.

Gilbert seemed to know what was going on too, having also disappeared for a time as well, about three or four years after coming back from Russia, because he said that he was getting in Ludwig's way and wanted to do something productive for a change so that Ludwig would stop complaining so much. Of course, Ludwig became worried about that, but because Arthur was there, he'd allowed it, if only Gilbert reported back to him at least once a month. Gilbert had told Matthew that Ludwig had wanted it to be once a week, but he and Arthur talked him out of it. Also, it seemed Arthur had to pull some strings to get Gilbert the job that was so secretive that not even Ludwig, his own brother, knew what it was. But since Gilbert said that he was helping Arthur, Ludwig allowed it, after much questioning and reassurances on Arthur's part- which he still damned Gilbert for, for leaving him with all the work of explaining to and reassuring the worried Ludwig that everything was going to be fine.

Though Matthew noticed that during that time, Arthur seemed really troubled and had once even looked quite sick and pale. He had even disappeared for a time and had left Alistair in charge of his work, thrice- once in 1994 and 1995, and the other in 2015, and no one really knew why, as those who did seem to know would not say much of anything.

Even Kiku had disappeared before, during the same time frame as when Ivan and Arthur disappeared and Gilbert got a temporary job from Arthur. But most thought that he was going into isolation again, and had soon came off of it, but seemed closer to Arthur, the Kirkland family, Michelle- though it may be because of Taiwan, Ivan, and Gilbert than ever before.

Whatever had happened had been kept so deep a secret between the Kirklands, Kiku, Gilbert, and Ivan that no one in the world, not even Matthew, Alfred, or Ireland, their uncle who knew them since they were children, knew what this was all about. But of course, Patrick had cute off all ties with them long ago and had even disowned all of them, so it was only natural he wouldn't know. Though the others had hoped that he would have some explanation for this, but he was just as in the dark as they were. Then again, he didn't seem to have really cared all that much about what was going on in or what was happening to England. Although his relationship with the older Kirkland brothers were better than with Arthur...

It didn't help that whenever Matthew asked him about it, Gilbert would always waved it off and said that it wasn't something he should be telling, and the matter was dropped just like that.

That little show of affection seemed to be the trigger for both Natalia and Alfred to explode.

"Big Brother!" Natalia yelled out before Alfred could scream out something at the Russian, and then launched herself at Ivan.

Ivan, startled, let go of Arthur, who quickly ducked down before Natalia could hit him. Ivan then ran towards the back door, screaming, and with Natalia right behind him.

"No~! Go back to Toris! TORIS!" Ivan screamed out the Lithuanian's name while running at full speed away from Natalia.

Arthur causally brushed himself off and straightened his costume. Matthew had thought that Arthur would've gone for his pirate costume or something from his golden days, but it seemed that he didn't. And he guessed that that was explainable. After all, the last time he was dressed and acted like a pirate, which was at the 2005 Halloween party in Denmark (the theme was pirates), Spain had almost shit himself and had not enjoyed the party at all, cowering in the corner and being kicked and cussed at by Romano, all the while eyeing England in fear. Once he'd even screamed out 'My Armada~!' and ran away crying when Arthur came to talk with him to try and make peace or at least, snap him out of it. After that, Arthur had never wore his pirating outfits or acted like his old self ever again, or at least, not to Matthew's knowledge anyways. _'But than again, who knows with Arthur eh,'_ Matthew shrugged.

Alfred looked concern for Arthur's well being, but before he could say anything or react, Arthur spoke up.

"And where do you think you're going, Chelles?" he asked, still brushing the invisible dust off his brown pants, blue vest, blue coat and even his silk bow tie around his neck (think cardverse).

He finally looked up at Michelle, who was about to step out the door after Seamus, Alistair, and Irina, but froze upon Arthur's words. Everyone watched the two of them in silence, just waiting for something to happen.

"Ehhh," said Michelle. "Going out?" She seemed unsure, as if hiding something.

Arthur's eyes narrowed on her form, causing her to take a step back against the door. "Oh?" He turned to the table and picked up his hat, cane, and Michelle's brown hat before walking towards her. "You forgot this." He placed the hat on her head and walked out the door. Michelle stood there, frozen, until Arthur turned towards her and said, "Well? Coming? I'm sure Francis and the others are waiting for us to bail them out of jail, again." He sighed. "Honestly. And it's not even night yet..." And he walked off. "Those three... And in my country too, no less. They'd better prepare themselves for the lecture that's coming their way... CHELLES!"

"Right!" said Michelle, quickly tying the bow on her hat to her chin and ran to catch up with him.

"What just happened?" questioned Alfred, watching the door slam shut.

"Hmm," said Dylan. "It seems Francis and some others got into trouble again. Probably went to jail for drinking or terrorizing, or in Francis' case, harassing the citizens. No wonder Arthur didn't want to talk to him. Antonio's most likely there as well... And one other..." At this, his gaze turned to Matthew, who stiffened. "Mathias..."

"What?!" Alfred yelled out. "Those guys went out drinking and didn't tell me! What the hell, man!"

Dylan smiled and shook his head. "Well, looks like it's just us here, children," he said, turning towards the two micronations in the room. He crouched down to their level. "So, now that Arthur's not here anymore, what do you want to do?"

The two children looked at each other in thought before a wide smile graced their lips and their eyes glimmered with mischief.

* * *

 *****Yes, I made Seychelles Matthew's sister. And yes, Seychelles will be in this, but only for two more chapters. I love her, okay! And yes, I also love Russia and thinks its a good relationship. Deal with it! Also, there's a reason Ivan calls Arthur "Big Brother", but I will not be explaining that in this story. Though prephase you've figured out from knowing what had happened in 1991-1995? All I'll say is that what had happened to Russia in the winter of 1991 was what caused Ivan to call Arthur "Big Brother". And the reason why Gilbert knew so much was because he had been living with Ivan for quite some time.**

 **The reason I gave Ukraine the name Irina is because that was one of the names Himaruya said could become her human name.**

 **If you still don't know who's who in this chapter, here's a list:**

 **Wales: Dylan Kirkland**

 **Northern Ireland: Seamus Kirkland**

 **Scotland** **: Alistair Kirkland**

 **Wy: Wendy Kirkland**

 **Australia: Jett Kirkland**

 **New Zealand: Joseph Kirkland**

 **Ireland: Patrick**

 **Seychelles: Michelle**

 *****QUESTION TIME!**

 **1: Why do you think all the Kirklands always leave behind something that would help Matthew?**

 **2: What happened to Ivan in 1991?**

 **3: What job did Arthur get for Gilbert and why?**

 **4: For what real reason did Arthur collapse and it became so bad that he needed to have his brothers living with him and still seemed to be recovering after two days? (Hint: nothing happened on the muggle side)**

 **5: Where is Australia and New Zealand?**

 **6: Was Kiku really in isolation? If not, than where was he?**

 **7: On what Island did Arthur surrender and agreed to come back to England with Alistair? Why?**

 **Next Chapter: Solving The Riddle**

 **I'll finally reveal the true contents of the riddle! Next time, France, Spain, and Denmark shows up. See what kinds of fun they'll create!**

 **Please Review!:)**


	4. Solving The Riddle

**I apologize for the accents (both verbal and in writings for different European languages- and because of that, I will be writing it in the English langue/version only, because honestly, I can't read Chinese, or Russian, or other languages, really. Can you? It's really honestly annoying to me), for this chapter, the chapter before, and the rest of the chapters after this one. My computer doesn't know how to put them into writing and I don't know how the other accents should sound, and I'm not even going to attempt it anymore.**

 **This chapter is my longest and most fav. out of all the chapters, and I hope you like it too!**

 **Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Solving the Riddle**

"Honestly, just what were you lot thinking?" came an annoyed voice as the door opened. "We're not even at the party yet and you have the nerve to go and get drunk?! And then start a bar fight, while streaking?! In my capital city?! I expected that from Mathias and Francis, respectively, but you-!" Arthur entered the house, dragging, literally, Francis and Mathias behind him. It seemed Antonio was well enough to walk on his own, but Michelle had one of his arms on her shoulder and one of hers around his waist to help support the man.

"But _Angleterre_ ~," whined Francis, still drunk. "We always do this with-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT, YOU BLOODY FROG!" England exploded, dropping both the Danish and Frenchmen on the ground. Both winched at the impact and volume of his voice, before Arthur rounded on Francis and started yelling at him for his stupidity.

Matthew looked down, knowing exactly what Francis had wanted to say and what Arthur had intercepted. _'Gilbert…'_ he lowered his sad eyes behind Kumajiro's head.

"It's bad enough I had to bail you lot out," Arthur grumbled, a hand on his hip and another on his temple, his eyes closed in an attempt to try and relax himself from the added stress. "Just what makes you think to call me, of all people, Frog?"

"Actually," Mathias spoke up from his place now on the armchair Matthew had been sitting in, but had quickly moved out of when he noticed that he was about to be sat on again, and because Mathias had thrown Kumajiro over to the next seat.

Dylan handed him a glass of water and a pile. Mathias took it and nodded his head in thanks before sitting up and said, "He tried calling Lovino first, but he only cussed at Tony before hanging up, and Norge won't answer me~."

"Than you could've called bloody someone else! Someone who is NOT ME! Again!" Arthur shouted at them. "Honestly," he closed his eyes and once again placed a hand on his temple. "I am not the person to call for all your troubles all the time, for goodness sakes." He walked back to his seat.

"But _Angleterre_ ~" Francis, in his drunken state, reached out for Arthur's legs and succeeding in stopping him.

"Who are you?" Everyone looked towards the talking bear.

Matthew smiled a bit. "I'm Canada," he answered.

"…Matthew!" said Arthur, finally able to shake Francis off his leg and able to remember Canada. "When did you get here, lad?"

Matthew blushed and hid himself behind his polar bear. "I've been here since Alfred walked in, Arthur," he answered.

"…Oh," was all Arthur could say before looking away. "Well than… sorry about that, lad."

"It's okay eh…"

"Hahahaha, you guys didn't know he was here?!" laughed America, walking over to Matthew's side. "I knew it all along!" he placed a hand on Matthew's shoulder. "Isn't that right, bro?! Hahahaha!"

"Ah, Alfred…" said Francis, sitting down on the couch next to Michelle and Mathias, who was over on the armchair, still holding his head. "Keep your voice down, _s'il vous plait_ (please). I feel like _ma tete_ is going to split in half…"

"Haha… you're what?"

"Head eh," Matthew answered quietly.

"Oh! Why didn't you say so man?!"

"Alfred…" whined Antonio from his place on the couch, leaning against Michelle, who gave him his water and pile while Dylan handed Francis his.

"Ow!" Alfred cried out, hand on the back of his head and he turned towards Mathias, who had his axe in hand.

Antonio was truly grateful for Mathias choosing to wear his black and red suite, and for having his axe with him. Unlike him, who was dressed as a farmer in the colonial age, and couldn't find his axe, although he was pretty sure that Romano may have broken it during one of his mood swings.

"Dude!" The drunken trio winched at the loud volume that was America's voice. "What the hell was that for, man?!"

"Alfred," Mathias groaned out. "Too loud…"

Alfred studied the trio for a moment. "Man, just how much did you guys drink?"

"Eh… can't remember… Spain?" Mathias looked to Antonio.

"Eh… Didn't keep count of one?" Antonio answered, unsure as he nursed his aching head.

" _Moi non plus_ (me either)," Francis put in with a groan, a bag of ice on his head and his eyes on the children playing with a black box. " _Mes enfants_ (my children), what is that you are playing with?"

Both Peter and Wendy looked up and Matthew saw something flash in Arthur's eyes. Surprise? Recognition? Whatever it was, he seemed to have tensed up a bit. _'Maybe,'_ thought Matthew. _'He got the same strange feeling from the box eh…?'_ Matthew looked around the room and noticed the strange look on everyone's face. _'Maybe we all do…?'_

"This?" Peter held up the box. "I don't know really. I found it in that blue bag Alfred brought in with him." He pointed towards the blue bag beside Alfred's chair.

Alfred looked down at the bag and found that, indeed the box was missing. "Whoa!" he said in surprised. "Dude, how'd you do that?! I swear the box was in there before!"

"Alfred," growled Mathias, holding his head and glaring dangerously at the American. "Don't make me hit you again."

Alfred smiled awkwardly in apology and scooted over to Peter to ruffle his hair and pet Wendy's head. "You like a little spy, aren't ya?"

Both Peter and Wendy blushed at the praised, and Wendy turned her head away. "Well, of course!" she said smuggle, her arms crossed, head held high, and a big smile on her face.

"Well…" said Peter, before looking up at England and his face turned smudged as well. "Ha! Take that, you jerk! Now you have to recognize me, the great Sealand, as a country!" he stood up and proudly pointed to himself.

"Hey!" shouted Wendy, also standing up. "I helped too!"

"Well guess what?" said Arthur, strolling over to the kiddy side of the room. "I don't care. And no," he swiped the box out of Peter's hand. "You are not a nation, you are a war fort." He then stared intensely at the box, as if trying to figure it out. "America, what is this?" He turned to Alfred for answers.

"Ah, that? Yeah. Forgot about that," said Alfred, hand on the back of his head.

Arthur did not look surprise as he stared blankly at the boy. "And again, I ask," he repeated. "What is this?"

Alfred walked over. "It's a box, Iggy." He took the box off Arthur's hand. "What does it look like?"

Arthur frowned, his eyebrow twitching as he crossed his arms and his eyes narrowed at Alfred in accusation. "I know that, you git! But what I want to know is what you intend to do with it?"

Alfred shrugged. "Oh nothin'," he answered. "Just goin' to show it to everyone at the party. Don't you worry Iggy."

"Aha. And mind telling me what it is you have planned? Cause you know," his eyes trailed off to the drunken trio. "I don't wish for another incident to go down, Alfred. And I well take measures to ensure that it does. Not. Happen. Again." He glared at the box before looking up at Alfred. "So, fess up, lad."

Alfred sighed. "Can't you wait until we get to the party, Iggy? I'll explain it to everyone then, and I'll only have to… to say it once…" he looked down at the box in his hand with a punting face.

"No," Arthur blankly answered. "I need to know it now, Alfred. Or I won't let you take that," he motioned to the box with his eyes and looked up at Alfred, "with you to the party. Or show it to everyone else, if I don't know what's it first."

"HEY!" Alfred pulled the box over his head in hopes of getting it farther away from Arthur's reach. "You can't do that, Iggy! This is mine, you have no rights!"

Arthur's eyes narrowed. "I don't care, you are now in my country, and I have all the right to take it away from you if I think that whatever is in there is dangerous! And believe me when I say that I well take it from you whither you like it or not. By force if need be, if you don't tell me what the bloody hell that box contains, Alfred!" He's voice sounded low, serious, and venomous, different from his usual scolding tone, and it made everyone cling, especially Spain. It seems that whatever was inside that box had Arthur feeling very unsettle and made him switch to his serious and commanding tone from his older days of ruling and power.

Seeing that Alfred wasn't about to answer him, Arthur's eyes narrowed and he raised his cane like a sword in front of Alfred, causing him to move back a bit and for everyone, aside from Dylan and the children, to stare in shock at him. Dylan hugged both children to his sides and Spain buried himself farther into Michelle's arms. Michelle looked worried as she stared up at them and tried to comfort Antonio by running her hand comfortingly down his back.

"If it is something dangerous…" Arthur's cane moved from Alfred to the box, his eyes cold and narrowed.

"Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait!" Alfred shouted out, one hand held out to stop him and the other had the box tucked safely under his arm. Arthur's gaze moved back to him, but the man did not lower his cane nor did he change its position. "Sheesh, Iggy. Just chill, will ya? I'll tell ya, I'll tell ya! Geeze."

Arthur lowered his cane back onto the ground. "That was all you basically needed to say, Alfred." He walked back to his armchair and sat down, causing Antonio to shake a bit from the distance between them now and quickly switched position, squeezing himself in between Michelle and Francis in fear. Francis cussed at him a bit for the shove and the distance now between him and Michelle. Arthur, on the other hand, smiled a little at that, seeming happy with what he had done, though his head did not turn toward them at all, but was held high in a proud, winning manner, Matthew noted. Though he didn't know if it was from winning against Alfred, or from what he'd made Antonio do.

Arthur's cane was now resting in front of him and supporting both his arms' weight on top of it. "Alright then, fess up, lad," he ordered.

Alfred stood there for a moment, under Arthur's watchful eyes, before sighing and he sat down beside Matthew. "Okay, how do I start this? Umm…" he mused to himself.

"Why don't you starting by explaining to us what that box is, _Amerique_ ," Francis suggested, taking his eyes off of the intruding and quivering Spain.

Michelle, with an unhappy frown on her face, scooted closer to Arthur to make more room and allowed Francis to finally have some space. But Antonio was now clinging onto him, which was kinda annoying, and eyeing Arthur in fear of his next move.

"Well…" Alfred looked down at the box. "I don't know really." He shrugged and Matthew face-palmed himself.

"You don't know?" Mathias questioned. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Look, I made a rash decision and got this from somebody, okay!"

"What? You got this bloody box from some stranger off the street whom you don't even know?!" Arthur blew up, seeming back to his normal self again. "Alfred!"

"Arthur, chill dude. I'll explain it from the beginning, geeze…"

* * *

"So, let me get this straight," Arthur said carefully. "You were angry at your government for trying to control you, ran into a little girl who said some weird things to you, got into a fight with some boys behind a McDonalds restaurant, and than the boy you saved gave you this bloody black box as payment and told you that you'll be able to escape the life of a nation if you can open this?" he stared at the box in Alfred's lap.

"… Yeah, pretty much," answered Alfred with a shrug.

Arthur rolled his eyes and fell back on his chair. "Oh Alfred…" he looked off towards the grandfather clock. "Why…?"

"Not to sound rude or anything, Alfred," Michelle spoke up. "But how do you know that you could trust this kid who can disappear into thin air, and who gave you a creepy box that looks and feels like a tomb…?"

"Yes," Arthur agreed, shifting his gaze back towards Alfred. "How can you be so sure that he has no other hidden agendas, Alfred? Besides, this is absurd! Just the mere notion of it is!"

"But you have to _admettre, Angleterre_ ," Francis spoke up, also eyeing the box. "This is _interessant, non_?"

"But tis impossible! It cannot happen. And DON'T CALL ME THAT, YOU BLOODY FROG! My name is Arthur!"

Francis smiled. " _Angleterre, Angleterre, Angleterre_ -"

A tick mark appeared on Arthur's forehead and he stood up and pointed towards the door. "Get out, Fog! Now that you've recovered, GO! Leave!"

"Ahhh, _Angleterre_ -"

"OUT!"

"Ah, guys," Alfred spoke up, causing the two archenemies to crease their verbal, that may soon turn physical, fighting and looked at him. "I hate to break up your little fl-" Alfred stopped at the warning glare Arthur sent his way. "Fight," he quickly corrected himself, earning a nod of approval from Arthur. "But, ah, the box?" Alfred held up the black box.

"Ah, right," Arthur dusted himself off and corrected his position. "I think it's best if you just leave it as it is, Alfred. There is no way for us to separate from the land. It's just not possible. What the child told you was probably a lie, so," he held his hand out, "give me the box and I'll keep it safe for you."

"What? No!" Alfred refused, keeping the box away from Arthur's reach. "I want to open it. Me and Mattie want to open it! Right bro?" Matthew nodded.

A tick mark appeared on Arthur's head. "Fist of all, it is Matthew and I," he corrected Alfred's grammar for the millionth time. "And secondly, no, I'm not letting you open it. We don't know what can happen, or what's inside, and I don't want to take the risk. Now give it here, Alfred."

Alfred frowned. "No!"

Another tick mark appeared on Arthur's forehead. "Alfred!" he shouted. "Stop being such a stubborn git and hand it over!"

"No! You don't control me anymore, England! I'm a free country, and I can do whatever I want!"

"Not when it is at the cost of others, you can't! Now stop this nonsense and give up this obsession of yours with freedom, Alfred, and give me the bloody damn box!" He made to take the box.

"No!" Alfred moved back, taking the box with him and out of Arthur's reach. "I want to open it! Just think about it, Arthur," Alfred reasoned, preventing Arthur from speaking up. "Wouldn't it be nice to be our own person?! To have our own free will and do what we want and not what the country wants?!"

"Alfred has a point, _mon ami_ (my friend)," said Francis.

"Yeah, why not give this a chance, Arthur?" asked Mathias, putting a hand on Arthur's shoulder to clam him down. "I mean, it sounds pretty interesting, the notion of being our own person with our own desires instead of the desires of a whole."

"Which our government doesn't always listen to eh," Matthew whispered, but of course, he went unnoticed, as always.

"Yes, well… I… admit it is interesting," Arthur agreed. "But we don't know-"

"Than why don't we test it out first?" Antonio suggested, finally able to recollect himself. This statement caused everyone to look at him in surprise, because for once, he actually spoke up and had an opinion on something, and actually said the right thing as if he knew what was going on. "Just us, I mean… What?"

"… Nothing," said Arthur, shaking his head.

"That was a pretty good suggestion, especially coming from you, Spain," praised Dylan, a smile on his face.

Antonio smiled. "Thanks!" he said.

"He didn't get that at all, did he?" Wendy whispered to Peter, who shook his head no.

"Well _Angleterre_?" Francis asked. "How about it? Let us test it out first before presenting this to the others at the party?"

"Yeah, we still have time, Arthur," Mathias added it. "I mean, it's only 5." His eyes trailed off to the grandfather clock. "53."

"Come on, Iggy, please," begged Alfred, giving Arthur his best puppy-dog face.

Arthur thought about it for a moment before sighing and rising his cup up to his lips. "Fine," he said, and Alfred cheered loudly like a happy child. "But," Arthur held up a finger, causing Alfred to stop and looked back at his old caretaker. "But, it'll only be us five-"

"Six," Kumajiro spoke up, bring everyone's head towards him.

"… Six," Arthur corrected himself after remembering that Canada was also in the room. "And no more than that. I'm not risking it. Not until we know it's save." He stared at the box. "Though to be honest with you, I don't see why we have to do this."

"What do you mean, _Angleterre_?" Francis questioned.

Arthur sighed. "If you think about it," he explained, "we are free. We, as countries, are given certain authorities over certain matters, and are allowed to do as we please, to a certain extent, of course. So I honestly do not see the need to do this."

"Hmm, that's a good point," said Antonio.

"Yeah, but we're still being controlled by our bosses and our people!" Alfred argued, seeing that Antonio might be changing his mind. "And besides, think about it! If we become our own person, separate from the land and its people, than we won't have to suffer the pain of a Nation!"

"There's always going to be pain in one's life, Alfred. No matter who you are, you'll always suffer. It's an endless cycle, after all. Mortal, or immortal, you'll always suffer. To some extent. And there well always be someone above us to whom we must take orders from. We can never escape being controlled by others, so there won't be much of a difference there either. In all likelihood, we nations are almost fully humans."

"I-" Alfred was stumped.

"You're right on that, _Angleterre_ ," said Francis. "But I'm still curieux about all of this. Why don't we just try it out and see where it goes?"

"And what if it's not reversible?" Arthur asked. "What than? And even if it does work, what will happen to the nation? Who will replace us, if any, should we suddenly renounce our nationhood, or prophases disappear even? Are you all truly willing to risk this?"

All five looked at each other for a moment. Finally, the answer came from the most surprising person, once again.

"We won't know unless we try," Antonio shrugged absentmindedly. "I mean, come on, this feels like our old conquering days all over again."

"Yes," Michelle whispered out lowly under her breath. "And we all know how well that went down." Her eyes trailed off to the side and Dylan nodded his head in agreement.

Arthur was silent for a moment, millions of thoughts running through his head as he tried to think this through, all the while studying all of their faces, especially Alfred and, surprisingly Matthew's. Finally, Arthur sighed and gave up. "Fine," he said. "But I will have no part in this. I'll only be tagging along to supervise you lot, because, let's be honest with ourselves here chums," Arthur smiled at them all, "none of you, except for you Matthew, are very mature, if at all." At these last two words, he glared at the four.

"And what about you, Arthur?" Mathias questioned, causing Antonio to flinch.

Arthur sent him an icy glare. "And what about me, Mathias?" he kindly asked, a gentlemanly smile on his face, but a dark aura was emerging from his body.

The trio flinched automatically and Mathias quickly answered, his hands in front of him in fear of Arthur's black cane, "Nothing! Nothing!" Apparently, Arthur's time with Ivan had paid off some what...

"That's what I thought." Arthur smiled and sat down to sip his tea.

"…OKAY than," said Alfred, taking out the red letter from his coat pocket. "Let's solve the riddle and fine the key, guys!"

"Wait, riddle?" said Antonio. "What riddle?"

"This one," Alfred pulled out the black card and showed it to everyone. "Sooo, Iggy-"

"No," Arthur quickly interrupted.

"Dude, you don't even know what I was going to say!"

"You're going to ask me to help you solve the riddle, and my answer, Alfred, is no." Arthur looked him in the eye. "As I have already said, I will have no part in this, aside from tagging alone to make sure that none of you," he glared at them, "get into trouble or do something to damage my capital city." He glared coldly at Mathias, who smiled awkwardly and looked away.

"What? But Iggy~" Alfred whined.

"No," Arthur restated, sipping his tea. "You're the ones who wants to bloody do this. You figure it out yourselves." He looked Alfred in the eye and Alfred was taken aback by the hard look in Arthur's forest green orbs. "This is similar to your Revolution, yes? If you could do that without my help, than surely you can do it again, oh great United States of America."

"…What are you taking about, Iggy?" Alfred questioned. "You're not making any sense. And what does my revolution have anything to do with this?" Arthur didn't answer him, but everyone watched on in silence, some catching on to what Arthur was implying. "Oh, whatever! We'll figure this out ourselves! We don't need your help. Right guys?! Who's with me?!" He turned towards the others with a big smile on his face.

"I am!" Peter shouted out eagerly, readying to do anything that would get on Arthur's nerves, even if it means doing something as stupid as this. Besides, it's not like it'll really happen, right? And maybe if he could get through this with the other major countries of the world, England would finally recognize Sealand as a country!

Arthur glared at the boy as he ran over to join the others on the other side of the room, where the rest of the group were gathered. Michelle had to switch her seat because they were now crowding over the only table there, and so, had moved to the chair sitting in between Arthur and Wendy. Wendy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms at the group, slumping back into her seat while Dylan moved to stand over Arthur's head and glanced down at the group with an amused smirk on his face.

"OK, let's get started than!" Alfred shouted out. "So, the first two sentences reads 'you will find me in the burning city of blood and tears'. Matt and I got that that's referring to war, but a lot of places got burned down during war and stuff, so it doesn't really help. The next line says 'great and rich with golden history', and we think it's taking about Europe, but…"

"But Europe isn't the only place with rich history," Dylan spoke up and the trio nodded in agreement, as much as some hated to admit it. "I believe there's also North Africa, Arabia, Central Asia, and China we have to think about. Even America might work."

"Yes, but America is still a fairy young country," Michelle spoke up. "In fact, the rest of the New World is."

The older nations nodded in agreement. " _Mon petite_ (my little) _Michelle_ has a point," Francis agreed. "So it cannot be _Amerique_ , or any of the new world countries. That just leaves the Old World. But _ou_ (where)?"

"Since you brought up Arabia," said Matthew. "It might be the Muslims eh."

"Many places in the Old World have a rich history," Mathias mused. "Heck, I think each country in the world has it's own great and rich history!"

"So how do we narrow this down?" Antonio asked.

"Well," said Francis. "Why don't we start with the oldest?"

"But not the ancients," Mathias put in.

"That would just leave the Muslims, won't it?" questioned Antonio. Matthew sighed in defeat and slumped down in his seat opposite from Wendy's.

"Yeah, the Muslims!" Alfred spoke up. "They're pretty old and went to a lot of places… maybe it's them! It's gotta be them! So it's in Arabia!"

"Or maybe it's China, with his Silk Road and golden history with the Mandate of Heaven…" Francis put in.

"Or it could be Greece with his philosophers or Italy with the Pax Romana," said Antonio.

"Or maybe it's referring to the Golden Age… or the age of discovery, conquering and imperialism… I don't know. It can be anything when referring to rich and golden history. A lot of places have those," said Mathias, then the trio's eyes widened once the words sunk into their heads. "It's the Vikings!"

" _Non, non, non_ ," disagreed France, shaking his head and his hands at them. "It is _conquete de Napolean_ (Napoleon's conquest)!"

"No, it's the _conquistadors_!" Spain argued, a proud, fond smile on his face as he held up a fist, his eyes gleaming with past glory.

And so began the fights between the three nations over whose great and rich history the riddle was referring to.

* * *

"Are you sure about this, Arthur?" Michelle whispered into Arthur's ears as the others talked loudly among themselves over the riddle.

Arthur lowered his teacup, his eyes closed. "You know Alfred, Chelles," he whispered back. "Once he sets his mind on something, it is nearly next to impossible to talk him out of it. Besides," Arthur's eyes darkened as he lowered his head and stared at the five. "I've warn them… now all we can do is… Hey! Don't go destroying my house as well, you lot! We don't want another repeat of the bar fight! FRANCIS!"

"WHAT?! _Angleterre_ , I'm hurt," Francis faked cry, pausing mid way on hitting Antonio with a vase. "You talk as though _moi_ was the only one who did it! Mathias and Tony were with _moi_ too, you know. And besides, it was Mathias who went berserk on London in 1994, 2014 _et_ (and) 2015, not _moi_!"

"The one in 2014 was all _Amerika's_ fault, and 1994 was in Scotland!" Mathias spoke up to defend himself, his axe in hand.

Arthur narrowed his eyes at him and muttered lowly, "I was surprised you even managed to find the place. Damned that Alistair." Arthur sighed. "Honestly, I can't believe I left him in charge every time I leave for..."

"Hey!" Alfred shouted as Arthur muttered about. "It was not!"

"Yes it was," said Mathias, raising his axe to Alfred's face. "He was _din_ (your) terrorist!"

"Well… He was yours," Arthur agreed, having heard Mathias' last sentence and took out his knitting tools while Dylan handed Michelle and Wendy their baskets filled with sewing equipments.

"But it was your men who blew everyone's heads up, Iggy!"

"If they hadn't done that, than everyone would've ended up killing themselves and each other! My men did this world a great service, you bloody git!"

" _Oui, mais_ (but) the clean up afterwards was _une douleur_ (a pain)," Francis complained. "Almost half of the world's population, _disparu_ (gone). _Et le gouvernement_ (and the government ) was in a shamble because of all the losses and the need for quick _remplacants_ (replacements) to _nettoyer le gachis_ (clean up the mess)…"

"English you bloody Frog! English! You're in England, not France, you tosser!" Arthur yelled out. But France just smiled and kept on talking in French, causing Arthur to become redder by the minute and he looked about ready to hit the man as he raised from his seat.

"Um, guys," Matthew spoke up, cutting the two in mid fist and causing them to look his way, through their fists did not come down, nor did they let go of the others shirt collar. "Let's forget about what happened in 2014 and focus on the riddle eh?"

"Right," Alfred agreed, bringing everyone back to the topic at hand. "OK, where were we?"

"Still on _historie_ eh…" Matthew reminded them with a weak smile. A quick glare from Arthur had him stepping back in apology for his word choice.

"Yeah… Let's just move on and come back to it later," Alfred suggested, not noticing the slip up like the others.

" _Aftalt_ (Agreed)," said Mathias, tidying himself up. "Let's just go through it first and then come back to it later, in hopes that we don't kill each other before than."

"There will be no killing in my house," Arthur spoke up after dusting himself off.

"Fine," said Alfred. "But it's not like it hadn't happened before." Arthur glared at him for that, but then went back to his knitting.

"Okay, so the next line is, _hvad_ (what)?" asked Mathias.

"Atop the tower with four faces," Peter spoke up, being one of the only people able to understand Mathias' last word because of how many times he had been placed in Mathias's care.

Arthur had to repeat time and time again whenever he dropped Peter off to Mathias or when the boy secretly followed him, that he did not want Peter drunk before his physical age allows it. He had almost killed Mathias once for giving Peter detergent to drink and causing the boy to become hallucinated for a week straight. Arthur had also scold Alfred once for giving the boy coffee. It was a good thing that Peter found it too bitter for his taste, but he still dealt with it in order to spite Arthur more though.

"Yeah, Matt and I thought it's a castle of some sort," said Alfred, not noticing that Arthur has paused in his work and that his eyebrows had twitched at Alfred's words.

"A castle?" questioned Peter, looking up at him. "Really? Are you an idiot?"

"What?"

Wendy rolled her eyes. "Even I know what it is, and I don't even live here!" she said.

Peter sighed. "Listen to the next two lines, than," he said and continued reading. "Which sits beside the seat of power and provides order." He looked up at them. "Got it now?"

Everyone just stare blankly back at him and Peter face-palmed himself. "Oh god," he groan out. "I can understand these two," he motioned with his free hand towards the New World twins, "not getting it, but you guys of the Old World?! Who even lives in Europe?! Especially you, France! What with your many years of wars with that jerk-face England, I thought you would know this! Or at least think about imperialism when your read the words power and order!"

The trio's eyes widened in realizations. "Imperier (empires)…" Mathias whispered.

"And not just any empire…" said France, and all three looked towards England, who was minding his own business and only looked up at them with a raised eyebrow when he felt their stares.

Matthew, who seemed to get what was going to, face-palmed himself while America was still in confusion and asking everyone what they'd mean by that.

"You knew about it, didn't you _Angleterre_ ," accused France.

"… I only realized it when Peter read the rest of it," Arthur answered, not stopping his work.

"What?" Alfred questioned. "What?! What did you guys realize?! Come on, tell me, what?!"

"It's in England eh," said Matthew.

"And not just anywhere in England," said France.

"It's here," Peter spoke up. "In this very city." Arthur stopped knitting and blushed off to the side.

"What?!" said Alfred, turning towards the person everyone else was looking at. "It's in this house?! Arthur!"

"No, you bloody git!" Arthur stood up. "It's…" he blushed and looked away. "At parliament…"

Francis smiled. "More like Big Ben, you mean," he said slyly.

"T-! Shut up, you bloody Frog!" Arthur looked like he's wanted to throw something at Francis, but Dylan held his basket away from him while the girls held theirs. And though he was tempted, Arthur was not about to loss yet another fine china in the house. Especially not to Francis, or all people. It just wasn't worth it, at the moment.

"Ohhh," said Alfred, his eyes widening with realization. "That makes since. So we're going to Big Ben than? Nice~"

"Like hell you are!" Arthur yelled, deciding to throw the pillow on his chair at Alfred, who easily caught it.

"But _Angleterre_ ~"

"NO! No way am I letting you see my- it's out of the question! Absolutely not! No! Never!" Arthur crossed his arms and put his foot down on this matter.

"But Arthur," Michelle spoke up. "They need to go and get the key from there."

"Well, they don't have to do this. We are fine just the way we are, so why change it? And who knows what will happen as an aftermath of all this."

"But if we don't try, than we won't know. Just let them go, Arthur. There's no point in stopping them now, is there? What happened the last time you tried to stop Alfred, huh?" That hit home and Arthur was silent, blankly staring at Michelle. Michelle seemed to notice what she had said and quickly added, "Besides, you'll be there with them, too. A-and you can watch over them... Instead of being on the opposite side this time...around." She squeaked and leaned back farther into her chair like a little rabbit being cornered by a lion as Arthur eyed her with intensity.

Finally he spoke, through it seemed to be through gritted teeth. "Just whose side are you on exactly, Michelle?" he asked, seeming more frustrated than mad.

"Not yours, at the moment." Her confidante seemed to have made a comeback.

Arthur sighed. "Must you always talk back to me? I thought I taught you better than that." Before she could argue back, Arthur continued, addressing the others. "FINE! We'll go... I'll take you all...to Elizabeth's Tower..." He lowered his head as if he wanted to cry at admitting to doing such a thing.

"Come now Artie," said Dylan. "At least it's just the tower and not your actual..." He looked down and smirked. Arthur blushed and glared at him, shifting his body away from Dylan's gaze. Even if it was his brother, no especially because it was his brother, Arthur felt really uncomfortable at being stared at...down there...

"Hohoho," said Francis, coming up from behind Arthur and hugging him, also staring down. "But _moi_ also wants to see-"

"Belt up, Francis!" Arthur shouted, hitting Francis right on the face, his cheeks burning red from, most likely, both angry and embarrassment. "You never saw it and will never see it, now get your bloody hands off of me, you bloody French tosser!" Francis went stumbling back a few feet.

"Oh, you talk as though you're a virgin, _mon ami_ ," he whispered.

Arthur glared at him, but didn't say anything. Though his face was still a bit red. Michelle winched, having poked her finger on the needle and now some blood came out. Arthur glanced as her as she stuck the finger into her mouth in pain. He could only shake his head at her usual carelessness.

"You, really," he muttered under his breath. "No matter how long time passes…" Michelle only looked up at him, hands still in her mouth like a toddler who was hungry or who wanted something.

Arthur walked over to her and handed her a simple, white-laced handkerchief from his coat pocket. Michelle took the handkerchief with three red roses and the beautifully carved word 'Thank You' embroidered on it, and stared at it for a moment, her eyebrow raised at the familiar carving and embroidery. She blinked a few times at it, as if not believing what she was seeing, before whipping her hand with it. Once finished, she handed it back to the blushing Arthur, never once lifting her head to look at him and he had turned his head away from her and to the group the whole time.

France could only smile shyly at seeing this. "Hohoho," he laughed and Matthew sighed, knowing very well what his papa was thinking about with that look in his eyes.

"Hah, so this is what Feli was talking about when he said you could be childish, Arthur!" Antonio shouted out happily, not really getting the feel of the evil glare from Arthur because his eyes was closed and because he was standing behind everyone else.

Because of the glare from Arthur, Mathias refrained from saying anything and for some reason, Alfred was only starring at the two, a strange longing look in his sad eyes.

Matthew knew why his brother had that look, but also knew that the others did not and that Francis was thinking the wrong thing. However much he wished he could tell them the truth and correct their misunderstandings, Matthew had promised Alfred he would not. _'Oh Gilbert,'_ he looked up to the sky with longing. _'I wish you were here with me right now.'_ He hugged Kumojiro tightly and hide his tears behind his let's head.

Arthur took his hangershift back without looking back at Michelle and hastily pocketed it back in it's rightful place over his heart. "Alright than, let's get going, chums," he commanded, recomposing himself and grabbing his hat off the table. "I might as well just get this over with already..."

"Not like you haven't dealt with worse," Dylan commented with a smirk on his face, eyeing Arthur from his place standing behind Michelle's chair.

Michelle shifted a giggle and Arthur glared at them. Wendy, who was now sitting on Michelle's lap, then asked her to take a look at her needlework, and Michelle advised her on her mistakes. Arthur's eyes seemed to soften a bit at this, but the others were too busy going towards the door and telling America of how the first parts refers to England, to notice.

But Peter noticed and spoke up. "Hey, jerk," he said, standing beside Arthur. "I want to come too."

Arthur's smile dropped and, not taking his eyes off the of the image said, "No." He turned towards Peter. "You are staying here with those three." He pointed towards Michelle, Dylan, who was now standing over the girls' chair, and Wendy.

"What? No!" Peter argued. "I want to come too!"

"No, you are not going," insisted Arthur. "You're staying here!"

"But I want to go!" Everyone turned to look at the two.

"And I said NO! You are still but a child who doesn't know any better, so don't try it with me, Peter!"

Tears welled up in Peter's eyes. "You JERK!" he screamed and kicked Arthur's leg before running off, passed Alfred and Matthew and out the door. He turned around and said, "I hate you, Arthur!" Than he turned back around and ran away crying. Rain started pouring down as he went and the wind slammed the door shut.

"... Well. Nicely done, Arthur," Michelle spoke up, breaking the silence. "You made him run out of the house, again."

"Oh, he'll be fine," said Arthur, putting on his hat and going to the door where the others waited. "Like you've said, he's done this before. And multiple times, I should add. He'll be fine; he could take care of himself. He's already over 60, after all."

Michelle sighed. "Yes, and you guys are older than him, yet... Hopefully, he want to Tino or Berwald. Ahh, it's raining again today..." she whispered, a bit worried at the weather and how Peter will fair in it. Arthur put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she looked at it before looking up to meet Arthur's blank gaze. Her eyes turned sharp than. "It's because you're like this is why Peter acts the way he does," she accused, looking crossed.

Arthur does not reply back to that and instead, stepped out of the house. "Ah," he said, turning back. "We'll most likely be a bit late for the party, so if we don't make it there early, just tell the others that we are running late, alright."

"Hmm," said Michelle, a frown on her face and helping Wendy with her needlework.

"And lock the door on your way out! Oh, and don't destroy the house while I'm gone! I mean it!"

"We get it! Just go already you jerk!"

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of the house and everyone and everything in it, little Artie!" Dylan called out, leaning down to hug Michelle's shoulder.

Arthur's hands and eyes twitched at the scene, but before he could do anything, Alfred and Francis pulled him away and closed the door.

"Wow, Arthur. Some family you have there, _mi amigo_ (my friend)," Spain commented, laughing.

Arthur glared and shook myself free of France and America. "As if any of you are one to talk," he whispered, just loud enough for the group to hear.

Antonio stopped laughing. "Eh?"

Arthur and Mathias shook their heads while Francis groaned into his hand and Matthew watched with a sweet dropped smile on his face. Alfred was being oblivious, as usual.

"Hey, Iggy," Alfred spoke up. "I get how the last parts are you, but I'm still in the dark about the first parts. How does it point to you man?"

Arthur sighed and explained, "I believe the burning city is referring to the Great Fire of London-"

"You did that yourself, Angleterre," Francis pointed out, a sly smile on his face as he remembered back to when Arthur burnt down London himself just to get away from the pain of the pledge.

Arthur glared at him and continued through gritted teeth, "And blood and tears are not literal."

"Not literal?" asked Alfred. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ohhh," realized Francis.

"What?" Alfred turned to him.

" _A rose is my blood and a cross is my flesh_ ," Arthur spoke up, bringing Alfred's attention back to him. "A German priestess once said that, some 500 years ago, I believe."

"…So?" questioned Alfred.

"The War of the Roses is the blood, and the tears is…" Matthew realized.

Arthur nodded, his face grim and eyes hidden behind the rims and shadows of his hat.

"What? What?" Alfred asked. "Mattie…" Matthew only shook his head.

"The atmosphere in England eh…" was all he said.

"Atmosphere? Oh, whatever's man." Arthur looked like he wanted to correct that grammar, but could only grunt his teeth and tightened his fist untitled it turned white. "Now explain to me what this great history is!" Everyone face-palmed themselves.

"You raised one hell of a child, _Angleterre_ ," Francis whispered.

"Don't remind me," Arthur whispered back. "And my name is not _Angleterre_ , you bloody French Frog!"

"Alfred," Mathias put his hand on the boy's shoulder, looking defeated. "You know about the Great British Empire, _ret_ (right)?"

"That one that's no more?"

Arthur's eye twitched. "British Commonwealth," he growled out.

"Yeah, what about it?" Alfred either ignored Arthur's words, or didn't hear them as he continued to look at Mathias, who obviously heard Arthur.

" _Pyt_ (never mind)," he said, and dropped the topic at that. "Just forget about it, Alfred."

"Okay… Sooo, who's car are we taking dudes?" Alfred asked. "Or are we walking?"

Arthur sighed and said, "We'll split into two groups. One of them," he pointed to the former darken trio, "will be going with you and Matthew, Alfred. The other two are with me."

" _Moi_ is going with Alfred and _mon petit Matthew_!" Francis quickly volunteered, hugging Matthew, who only smiled awkwardly.

"Great," Arthur smiled widely at that, clapping his hands together in front of him. "Than it's settled. Either way," he shrugged, "I would be stuck with idiots, but at least it's not with you, Francis."

"Ahh, _Angleterre_. Did you want to be with _moi_?"

"No! Stay away, you bloody Frog! Don't touch me-!" He slapped Francis' hands away from his body. "Oh crap..." Arthur paused in pushing Francis away and stared out into the rain covered yard, his face turning into one of horror as he continued to watch the events folding out before his very eyes.

The others, confused, turned their heads to look at what Arthur was so freaked out about only to have their yaws dropped at the site before them.

* * *

 **Big shock! Arthur points his cane at Alfred. Deja vu.**

 **I'm really glade so many figured out the riddle. I asked my world history teacher and my English teacher, and they didn't even know it. Good job to those who knew!**

 **The reference to 2014 was to, if you hadn't already guessed, Kingsman: The Secret Service. I liked that movie and wished there were more Hetalia crossovers with it. Although, it somewhat reminds me of Percy Jackson Series also...**

 **As for 1991 and 1994, will, I'll explain it in a later story, but I'm sure you can probably guess what I was alluding to...**

 **I don't actually think Big Ben, or the Tower, is that part of him, but I did that just for laugh and fun.**

 **Question Time!**

 **1: Why is Arthur so on edge and different from his normal self? (By different, I mean him threatening Alfred)**

 **2: What was Mathias doing in Scotland in 1994?**

 **3: What is the misunderstanding that France has and what does Matthew know about Alfred that he had promised not to tell anyone?**

 **4: Why did Michelle react the way she did upon seeing the rose handkerchief?**

 **Next Chapter: Off To The Clock Tower We Go!**

 **See what kinds of challenges the group well face as they head off to the Tower! More new characters added, and boy are they a strange bunch. But two of them definitely resembled two certain nations we all know and love.**

 **Please Review!:)**


	5. Off To The Clock Tower We Go!

**Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Off to The Clock Tower We Go!**

"Oh crap," said Arthur, his face turning paler at the sight before him.

The others, confused, turned their heads to look at what Arthur was so freaked out about only to have their yaws dropped at the site before them.

There, on the wet porch, were magic circles in blood red colors shining on the ground. And from it, rose the demons of the underworld.

"Umm…" said Alfred, blinking his eyes and taking out his glasses to clean it. "Am I actually seeing this right?"

"I don't think we'll be able to use your car anymore, _mon petit Alfred_ ," Francis patted Alfred on the shoulder in sympathy for his lost.

Alfred shrugged, turning his gaze away from his terrorized car. "Hmm, it doesn't matter," he said. "It was a rental anyways."

Arthur had turned back around and was trying to open the door to the house. "Ahh!" he screamed, giving up. "Curse that Dylan! He locked the bloody door and put up a protective charm on the house!" he turned around just it time to see his gardens being destroyed. "My roses!" Never mind the other things getting destroyed. After all, he could always replace the Halloween decorations and lights, but his roses... Ohhh, his precious roses...

Arthur also looked around to the sunflowers and his face turned paler as he thought of what Ivan would do when he finds out about this. Well, at least Michelle's tropical flowers were still safe...

"…So, we're walking?" Antonio questioned.

"More like running," corrected Mathias. "Come on!" He grabbed the still in shocked Arthur and started running through the rain towards the exit.

Everyone fallowed behind and the demons, noticing that they were running, starting coming after them and Mathias had to get ride of them with his axe.

"My city," Arthur said absentmindedly. "Ack!" He winched in pain and grabbed his chest, falling down on one knee, but Mathias caught him with his free hand while the other kept the demons away with his axe hand.

"You okay, Arthur?" he quietly asked the blond next to him, taking a quick glance at his injured friend before shifting it back to the battlefield.

Arthur nodded his head, blinking the tears away, but still clinching his chest tightly.

"Iggy!" cried Alfred, before punching one demon and sending him flying. He than proceeded to hit the others and helped Mathias clear the path.

"Damn, there's too many of them," Alfred cursed.

"Ah! Papa!" Matthew shouted, reaching for Francis, who was the closest to him.

" _Matthew_!" Francis cried back in worry, reaching out for him, but to no avail. " _Bon sang_ (damn it)! _Vas t'en de mon chemin, vous monstres laides_ (get out of my way, you ugly monsters)! _Matthew_!"

A gold handled rapier appeared in his hand and Francis was not afraid to use it to strike down his opponents. With a murderous look in his eyes, Francis began to cut up all those standing in his way and soon, was able to free Matthew and hold the boy in his arms once more.

" _Matthew, vous d'accord_ (are you alright)?" he asked, worried for the boy he was hugging on the floor.

Matthew nodded his head. " _Oui, papa. Merci_ (thank you)," he answered and got up with Francis' help. "Where did you get that, Papa?" he asked, looking at the rapier in Francis' hand.

Francis held the rapier up a bit and said, "I don't know. It just appeared in my hand when I wished for something to fight these ugly beasts with."

Matthew nodded and looked up to the sky. "It's dark," he commented.

" _Quoi_ (what)?" Francis also looked up and noticed that the sky was unusually dark for a raining sky in England, as was the entire area. "What happened here?"

" _Je ne sais pas_ (I don't know)" Matthew answered. "But whatever it is, it probably has to do with the appearance of these demons and that rapier in your hand, papa."

"Hey! Mattie, Francy-pants!" Alfred called out from across the yard, now standing on the wet sidewalk with Antonio, Arthur and Mathias. They were all socked and Arthur still looked pretty pale and out of it. "Over here, guys!"

Matthew nodded and he and Francis made their way toward the others. Just as they were trying to catch up, Alfred's eyes widened and he told them to hurry up. When the two turned back, they understood why, for behind them, more red magic circles appeared and glowed, summoning more demons with them. The two did not need to be told twice and quickly ran to catch up with the others.

"Ahhh!" Francis screamed. "What is up with this?! _Angleterre_!"

That seemed to have snapped Arthur out of whatever trance he'd been in, because he spoke up with emotion in his voice this time. "Peter," he said, remembering the run away little boy. As soon as he remembered that, worry and panic slipped in.

Arthur's face twisted into one of horror, realizing the fate of the child who had just ran out and where most likely roaming the dangerous streets all by himself. Arthur quickly straightened himself up just as Francis and Matthew caught up with them. Everyone looked at him as he stared off into a dark alley and started to run in that direction at full speed, not caring about the hard pouring rain and never once looking back.

"Arthur, wait!" Alfred shouted after him. "Ahh, come on!" And he and the others ran to catch up with him. However, they didn't get far, as more demons showed up and blocked their path. Alfred watched with worry as Arthur ran deeper into the darkness and soon disappeared out of sight.

"God fucking damn it!" he yelled out, calling up two guns into his hands and soon began shooting down his opponents with no mercy.

"Hey guys," Antonio spoke up, his double-headed axe in his hand. "Have you noticed that…?"

"There doesn't seem to be any humans around?" surprisingly it was Alfred who said it, his face serious for once as he shot more down and kept running in hopes of catching up with Arthur.

" _Oui_ ," said Francis, his face also serious as he cut more demons down.

By this time, Matthew seemed to have acquired a scythe and was also killing himself some demons as well.

* * *

Arthur was running as fast as he could, trying to pinpoint Peter's exact location. Because they were in a different dimension of a sort, Arthur was not becoming affected by all the damage done to his land, and boy was there a lot of damage being done, if the explosions and giant beasts appearing and fighting each other is anything to go by. But because there were now two different dimensions, he had a bit of a hard time getting use to it. Arthur was not sure if the others had realized this fact yet, but it didn't matter. He had to find Peter!

Arthur gritted his teeth and ran faster. Any monsters he ran into, Arthur quickly got ride of them with a slash of his cane, using the thing like a capable sharp and dangerous sword. One slash of his good old cane and it was enough to send the demons disappearing back to hell. But Arthur didn't care for them though. No, his mind was set and his cold green eyes never once straying from their purpose. Finally, Arthur caught a glimpse of some blonde locks in the middle of a group of demons, and knew right away, without a doubt to whom it belonged to.

"Peter!" he screamed out, worried for the boy surrounded by the demons. His cane was raised in a ready position to attack the group of demons surrounding his kin and save the child, but he was a bit late...

BOOM! An explosion went off, halting Arthur in his track and causing him to cover his face in defense with his raised hand instead of using the cane in said hand to attack. Once he opened his eyes again, the smoke began to clear and Peter walked out of the crater, unharmed.

"You called, jerk-face?" Peter smiled, walking out and carrying a rifle with a bayonet fixed at the tip of it.

Arthur face-palmed himself. "Oohh," he groaned out. "Of all the bloody things…" he turned towards Peter. "Did you really have to use a grenade on them, lad?"

Peter moved back a bit, a frown on his face. "Well, what do you want me to do, jerk? I was surrounded and shooting them all wasn't an option. It was better if I drop the boom and jump out of the way!"

"Than why not use the bloody bayonet?"

"Not fast enough."

Arthur looked like he wanted to say something to that, but swallowed it down. "Ahh, remind me you need more lessons on stealth training when we get back home. Prophase I should invite Kiku for some lessons... Well, come along now, lad." He grabbed Peter's hand. "Let's go fine the others. I can't take you back to the house anymore, so you're stuck out here with us, for now."

That made Peter smiled widely and whispered a silent thank you prayer to Dylan.

"Until I can fine somewhere safe for you to stay," Arthur added upon seeing Peter's silent prayer to the sky, and succeeded in whipping the smile off of Peter's face and bring his attention back to him.

"What? No!" Peter shouted. "I don't want to stay safe and protected. I want to fight and help! Let me do it, Arthur! You said I'm a war fort after all!" Arthur just blankly stared at him. "Please. I'll be good and I'll listen to you. I promise."

Arthur sighed and looked away. "Fine," he said. "It's pointless anyways. We are the only ones here... At the moment. So it's not like I can just drop you off to someone…"

Peter smiled and both made their way back to the group. However, they soon found their path blocked by a blonde haired, blue eyes boy dressed in black ropes landing in front of them. The blonde seemed just as surprised to see them as they were of him.

"Opps," said the blonde, scratching his head. "I wasn't suppose to do that." He looked out from the corner of his eyes and panicked when he saw all the demons coming after him. "Ahh! Crap! Sorry guys, gotta run! Can't let Shiro-chan catch me-!"

"Too late, you stupid fox!" shouted a British accented voice just as Alfred and the others came into view. For some reason, the rain turned colder, but did not turn into hail yet.

The newcomer stepped out from behind the blonde and held out one of his hands towards the demons while the other rested on the blonde's shoulder. Ice started shooting out from his opened plum, hitting all the demons and causing them to disappear in many red sparks of light. The blonde seemed to be fidgeting and sweating buckets at the newcomer's arrival.

The new arrival was a teen who looked to be around the same age as the blonde and he now held the blonde by the back of his collar, glaring at him for trying to get away while the blonde looked down in guilt. The new child had fair skin, strange white hair, and deep jade eyes. He was wearing a white suit, with a light blue shirt underneath, and a black tie. The child also wore a white scarf around his neck, and upon closer inspection, one could tell that there where small flower patters, like snow, on it.

"Aheheheha," the blonde laughed awkwardly, stretching his head with one hand. "Shiro-chan…"

A tick mark appeared on the white haired teen's head. "Don't call me that, you bastard fox!" he shook the blonde.

"But Jacky~"

"It's Jack, Lucas! Jack! And what the bloody hell are you doing here, you tosser?! Luna's been looking all over the States for you! Return to New Orleans now, and stop giving me and your sister more work, you damned twit!"

At the mention of Luna's name, Alfred looked up. Arthur and Peter had, by than, made their way over to the others and was now standing next to Alfred, watching the scene play out with a blank look on his face.

"Yeah, about that…"

Jack face-palmbed himself with his free hand. "Ahh, you did it again, didn't you."

Lucas smiled. "Sorry Shiro-chan-"

"I told you not to call me that!" He shook the blonde, his face red with furry.

"Shiro-chan!" called a new voice, and Jack's eye twitched.

"Ahh, _aniki_!" Lucas shouted out to the new comer, who was standing atop the building.

This newcomer, Lucas' older brother, appeared to be the same age as Lucas. Both had the same blonde hair and fair skin as each other, as well as an almost identical cheerful-but-mysterious smile that reminded Alfred of the boy who gave him the box. However, unlike his younger brother, this boy had green eyes and was wielding a red scythe in his hands.

"Oz," said Jack, turning towards the other teen.

Oz smiled. "I see you found Hi-chan, Shiro-chan," he said with a British accent. "That's good. Luna-chan's been out with Ash, looking everywhere for someone to sign the paperwork piling up in New Orleans."

Lucas clinked and tried to get out of Jack's strong hold.

"Ohh," said Jack, a sly smile on his face as he turned his gaze over to Lucas, who was trying hard to get away. "You don't say." His eye sparked.

"N-now, now, Shiro-chan!" said Lucas. "Surely you are not going to send you best friend to his death are you?"

"Best friend? You tried to bloody kill me, Lucas! Our friendship and brotherhood ended long ago, you traitor! Now take your demons and go back to hell were you belong! Or at least do your own god damed paperwork for once, you sly fox!" Ah, so that's why the demons weren't attacking... Though they looked like they really wanted to eat the nations up, but seemed too afraid of the blonde to make a move in his presence.

"Is it just me, or…" Mathias began in a low whisper, looking at the two arguing in front of them.

"Doesn't that sound _juste un peu trop familier pour vous_ (just a little too familiar to you)? _Oui_ ," Francis whispered to the group in the back.

Matthew, Mathias, and Antonio nodded in agreement, all looking at the firm backs of Arthur, who had his arms crossed over his chest as he watched the scene play out with a frown on his face while his eyes narrowed, and Alfred, who just looked on with a black face, box in his hand.

"Umm… How about a no," said Lucas, and he than faded into thin air with a sly smile on his face.

Jack quickly pulled his hand back and smoke rose from it. "Ack! That damn fox. Opening the gate of inferno and giving me more work. I swear when I catch him..."

"Shiro-chan," Oz called out, stopping Jack's ranting. Jack looked back at him and noticed the others were watching them.

Even though Lucas was gone, the demons still seemed reluctant to approach them due to the other two's presence. And now Alfred and Co. knew why.

Jack's gaze hardened at the sight of the black box in Alfred's hand. "That box," he said, moving closer towards the group, who took a few steps back at the sudden cold emitting off of the teen and hitting them. The rain had, by now, turned into hail around the boy, but the hail never seemed to touch his body, always disappearing into blue sparks upon hitting his form.

Jack reached out for the glowing box and touched it. However, he quickly retreated his hand back, as the box seemed to have burnt him much worse than Lucas had.

The two worlds collided and created a hug light blue glow. Than they repulsed each other and moved father away, but slowly drifting towards the other again. Alfred noticed that it's never done this before, it only ever passed through each other and start the process all over again. But they've never once collided before...

Jack held his wounded hand and narrowed his eyes at the still glowing box before looking up at them. "I should've known," he whispered. "Luke, despite how childish he acts most of the time, would not have opened the gate unless…" Jack met eyes with Arthur and his eyes narrowed at Arthur's blank face. "Hmm." He than turned towards the clock tower leaning overhead. He narrowed his eyes at it and held up his hand.

Oz landed beside him and said, "Shiro-chan."

Everyone watched as Jack waved his hand and ice began to form on the tower until it was entirely frozen in it. However, neither hail nor snow fell around the tower, only cold mist gathered at the bottom. And the rain stayed burning cold to the touch.

Arthur's eyes widened. "My tower," he gasped in shock before turning quickly towards Jack. "You git! What did you do to it?!"

Jack merely glanced back at Arthur, who held out an accusing figure toward him and who looked quite angry, with blank eyes. Than he smirked. "This way, you won't be able to obtain the key so easily. It's payback for giving me hell on this day, of all days." Arthur only looked at him in confusion, yet still seemed angry, and Jack than took out a silver pocket watch and opened it up to check the time.

Upon seeing the watch, Alfred suddenly remembered the kid's warming. "The person with the watch knows the time," he whispered, staring at the silver watch.

Arthur and the others looked at him in confusion, as he had not told them of the child's warning. Oz, hearing this, took out his gold pocket watch and looked at the time as well.

"Shiro-chan," he said, bring Alfred's attention over to him and his watch. "We only have about four hours left until the fest at midnight."

Jack nodded his head in understanding and pocked his watch. Oz did the same and Jack glanced up towards the sky. "Yes, let's quickly finish up here and meet up with the others," said Jack, about to leap away.

"Wait!" Alfred called out to them, stopping the two from leaving and having them turned back towards the group. Alfred stepped up. "Those pocket watch… do you all have them?"

Jack and Oz looked at each other in confusion before realization struck them. "Ahh," said Jack. "The warning…"

Oz laughed. "Why yes, little Alfie," he answered with a British accent, confusing the group as they knew that Lucas, his younger brother, spoke with an American accent. "All of us members of the Society have them. But do not worry, for we, or rather I should say, I will not get in your way." Jack smirked, his back turned to the group. "Goodbye little ones. Let's meet again soon! Oh, and I hope you can make it for tea sometime later, Arthur! Alice is really looking forward to it! Good luck!" And both of them disappeared, wiping out all the demons, big or small, in the area along with it.

"… Okay, what the fuck was that all about?" asked Alfred. "Arthur, you know them?" Alfred moved towards Arthur. "Are you-"

"No Alfred," said Arthur, pushing Alfred away from him. "Today was the first time I've met them… However, I feel as though I've seen them somewhere before… prophase in passing?" Arthur went into deep thought over that. "No, their clothings are too old fashion to… Ah! Oz! Oz Vessalius! The heir to the Vessalius family who died in the Great Fire!"

"D-dead," Alfred shattered out, looking afraid and hiding behind Matthew. "Y-you mean those two were… g-g-ghosts?! Ahhh! Don't worry, Mattie, the Hero will save you!" he buried his face into Matthew's back.

"Ah, Alfred…" said Matthew, as everyone shook their heads.

"I don't think they're ghosts, Alfred," said Arthur. "They didn't look dead… but…"

"But what?" Alfred asked. "What?"

Arthur shook his head, looking troubled. "Nothing." He looked at the road ahead of them that would take them to Elizabeth's Tower. "Well, now that the road is clear, let's go chums."

* * *

"Aahhh! Iggy, I thought you said the road was clear dude!" Alfred whined. Arthur did not answer. "So what the hell is this?!" He shoot three bullets at the ice colossus in front of him. There were actually three of them, each standing almost as tall as a building and pretty hard to kill, with either blades, bullets or fists.

"Ahh! _Angleterre_!" Francis shouted over. "Do something, _mon ami_!"

"I'm trying, Frog!" Arthur yelled back. "My spell book won't come at my call!"

"A book?! Really Iggy! At a time like this?!"

"My magic is real damn it!"

"Ahh, I don't care if it's real or not, just do something about them!" Mathias shouted, blocking the colossus' gigantic ice sword together with Antonio. "Tony!" He tried to reach for Antonio, who was caught by one of the colossus.

"Ahh, this is no doubt that Jack's doing!" said Arthur. "And damn Dylan for this. Charming the house so that nothing can get in, or get out! Just bloody brilliant. Peter! Keep throwing those grenades! I need time to remember some spells." A green magic circle appeared from under him and Arthur began chatting, using his cane as his medium.

" _Cualquier dia_ (any day) now would be nice, _Arturo_!" Antonio shouted, about ready to boat because the colossus was holding him over its mouth. Arthur's eye twitched a bit in irritation at his name being spoken in Spanish, but ignored it.

Matthew was blocking another colossus' sword with his scythe while Alfred strikes. The same went for Francis and Peter, though Peter's hits seemed to be showing signs of effects.

"Salvame (save me)! Mathias!"

" _Dont bekymring min ven_ (don't worry my friend). I'm coming!" Mathias shouted, running up the colossus' leg. But it didn't seem like he was going to make it in time.

Suddenly, a small, purple magic circle revealed itself from behind one of Kumajiro's ears, and the bear suddenly leaped off from his place next to Arthur, dropping the box in his hands in a not so gentle fashion. However, before the box could hit the ground in a face down position, the box suddenly flipped itself up and landed softly on the ground where Arthur's green magic circle grew, safely next to his feet as if it knew its true master. The box had either done it by itself or it was done by Arthur's magic.

Kumajiro began to grown and everyone watched in amazement as he grew until he was the same size as the colossus. They all looked to Arthur for answers only to find him still chanting, his eyes closed off to the rest of the world around him.

"Pay attention!" he yelled at them, his eyes still closed, but apparently able to see, felt, or just somehow knew that they were all looking at him instead of at their opponents. With his words, Arthur managed to bring their attentions back to the problem at hand. "Hold them off for as long as you can!" And he went back to chanting inaudible and unfamiliar words under his breath again, causing gold colored words in a foreign langue to appear from the green circle and began circling itself round him like a ribbon.

Once finished transforming, the polar bear leaned onto the colossus and tried to grab Antonio out of its cold grapes, as the man was turning very pale and shaking from the cold. However, the colossus won't let go, so Kumajiro bit down on its neck, hard.

"Kumahiro!" Matthew shouted in worry and horror, scared for his pet and what this could do to his teeth. Though his attack appeared to have had no affect on the colossus at all.

Arthur finally finished chanting and the magic circle under his feet grew brightly. He opened his eyes and pointed his cane out, causing the gold words to fly in the direction he was pointing to, which was to everyone. The picture on the lid of the box flickered between the pictures of the two globes and one of a gold clock written in Latin numerals, a smaller circle with the symbols of the zodiac constellations inside it.

The words surrounded the others and their weapons, giving off a warm feeling to it and warming everyone up before going into their weapons. A small purple magic circle appeared on the black surface of Matthew's scythe, where the gold words had disappeared into, pulling his attention away from Kumajirou. Alfred had a red magic circle appearing on both of his guns while Francis had a rose pink magic circle appearing on the surface of his blade, where the magic touched it. Mathias and Antonio also had red colored circles similar to Alfred's and each other's on the surface of their blades, but the designed looked a bit different, unique to each individual. And finally, Peter had a sky blue magic circle on his bayonet.

"Alright, I've enchanted you're weapons," Arthur explained. "Now you should be able to do some damage to them."

Mathias smirked. "About time," he said, and made a swift work of his axe by cutting the colossus' arm off, freeing Antonio in the process. The injured colossus stumbled back a bit and held it's broken hand. Suddenly, it began to reform again, and boy did the giant look angry.

"Alright!" Alfred shouted out, firing four bullets at his target. It seemed to have an affect, as the colossus stumbled back a bit and Francis was freed from having to block it off.

The Frenchmen smirked. "Now it's _mon tour_ (my turn)," he said, running up to the giant and slicing him up into many pieces in hopes that he would not be able to reform. However, that didn't work either, as white lighting seemed to come off and reconnect the pieces together again.

Matthew and Peter were the same, but than Peter became angered and took the bayonet off of the rifle and looked ready to charge.

Arthur looked up at him with wide eyes. "Peter, no!" he shouted, reaching a hand out to stop the boy, but it was too late.

Peter threw the bayonet straight at the colossus and quickly shot three bullets off from his rifle, followed by a grenade quickly thrown after them. The silver bayonet pierced right into the middle of the colossus' chest and it seemed to be sinking into it. Than, the bullets made contact with it, denting it and creating a small triangle big enough for the grenade to land in the middle and become frozen it.

The same sky blue magic circle on the bayonet appeared in front of the colossus, except bigger. It spun just like the circle under Arthur's feet and the colossus looked down at it in either wonder or confusion.

Seeing that, Peter than lowered his head a bit, causing his eyes to be slightly shadowed by his bangs, and darkly commanded, "Explode." Upon commanded, the circle spun faster and began to glow, causing the colossus to scream out in fear.

BOOM!

The colossus shattered into small pieces of ice and melted in the cold rain as soon as it touched the ground. Arthur face-palmed himself, whispering something no one seemed to have heard, being too focused on their targets and what had just happened to care to look back at the magician behind them.

Kumajiro began to shrink and soon returned to Arthur's side to watch over the box again. Arthur's eyebrow was twitching and he didn't seem pleased that Peter had disobeyed him as he stared up at the falling ice with dark eyes.

"Wow!" Alfred said in whoa. "That was nice, Peter!"

Peter blushed, returning back to his innocent self. "Thanks," he said. "But that was my only bayonet, so…"

Alfred shrugged. "It doesn't matter," he said. "CAUSE NOW WE KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF THESE THINGS! Just step back , and let the hero do the work form here on!"

"Don't you mean the adults?" Peter questioned.

Alfred ignored him and said, "Come on Francy-pants, back me up!"

Francis sighed. "So it's my turn now hah?" he questioned.

"HAHAHA!" Alfred laughed. "Alright, Francis. I choose you!" He pointed towards the colossus with smug confidence as Francis charged and cute off both of the colossus' arms off, however, he waited for his magic circle to glow before cutting. Once he returned to the ground, his magic circle had shattered the pieces into pink dust while the colossus he and Alfred were facing roared in pain.

After Francis had cute up off their target's, Alfred went in for the body and shot at it many times. As soon as the bullets hit the chest, Alfred's red circles appeared in giant form and all imitated the roaring and wide eyed colossus before shattering it into red sparks.

Arthur could only watch the scene play out from behind everyone, his face set into a frown and his eyes narrowed. He than hummed in thought, his eyes blank yet calculating.

At the same time, Mathias and Antonio had just cute up their opponent into many little pieces with the help of Matthew's scythe and Peter's rifle. Everyone smiled at their accomplishments.

Overhead, the clock, though the tower was still frozen on the outside, stuck 12 and Big Ben chimed.

"Ahhh," came a voice from behind. Everyone turned towards the newcomer, their smiles turning into frowns.

Jack walked out of the shadows of London, holding a hand out to catch the falling ice, his eyes sad as he looked up to the darkened sky. Everyone took up their weapons and stood on guard.

Arthur moved Peter back behind him and held up his cane for protection, his eyes narrowed on Jack's form, his face serious and looking ready for an intense fight. However, Peter and Kumajiro noticed that he was turning paler and his breathing was turning more and more labored, as if in pain. The box now in Peter's hand, as he had taken it after picking up Kumajiro from his place beside Arthur, began to freeze over a bit.

"Arthur?" Peter asked in a quiet whisper from his place behind the older Kirkland, looking worried.

Arthur, if he heard, did not answer back, and only focused his attention on Jack's form.

"You destroyed them," Jack said. "My pets. My gatekeepers…" he looked at them. "How am I going to explain to my lovely daughter about this mess? I borrowed these guys from her, you know. And her husband isn't exactly as innocent and friendly as he appears..." His eyes looked truly sad.

"Liar," Arthur whispered.

Jack quickly glanced and narrowed his eyes a bit at the pale Arthur. Arthur, to his credit, met the child's cold, strong gaze evenly, though his pale condition did not help him much. Jack seemed to have whispered something to Arthur, a smirk on his face, and Arthur, his eyes narrowed accusingly, muttered something back. Though all of this was lost to the others, however, as Alfred's shout pulled everyone's attention, except for Kumajiro and Peter, who was hiding part of his body behind Arthur and was glancing back and forth between the two British gentlemen and watching their quick and secretive exchange.

"Daughter?!" Alfred shouted out. "But aren't you like, 16?"

Jack smiled. "And what about you?" he asked back. "Aren't you supposed to be 19?" Alfred and the others were taken aback by that comment, wondering if Jack knew. Arthur's eyes narrowed and Jack smirked smugly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Appearance can be deceiving, yes?" Than he looked down at his hand. "Although, I can appear older than I am now, if I wanted to." His silver pocket watch appeared in his opened palm, and Jack glanced at it as if it could back up his calm.

"So you really are the person who's suppose to get in our way!" Alfred accused, pointing a finger at Jack.

"Get in your way?" Jack raised an eyebrow, glancing back to Alfred.

"Yeah! The kid warmed me about you! He said the person with the watch well prevent us from getting to our goals!"

"Oh? Really?" He turned his body to face them, a small smile on his face and his eyes seemed to be sparkling with something akin to amusement and excitement.

"You're him, aren't you?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "Like Oz said, many of us have a pocket watch. Even you have one as well, right Alfred?" He looked at Alfred's side pocket.

Alfred was startled by this and took out his silver pocket watch and looked at it. The first time he had seen it, Alfred had slowly opened it up as if it was a delegate, important antique of some sort that he could not destroy. Alfred's heart had beat slowly and loudly in his chest. He had felt as though the watch contained something important to him, but Alfred didn't know what. He had been greatly saddened when he found that the old pocket watch was broken and would not turn. He had tried moving the seemingly familiar watch my winding it, but it didn't work and from there on out, Alfred didn't feel like opening it up again, feeling troubled for reasons he couldn't name. And from the looks on Matthew's face at seeing the watch and how he reached out for it, Alfred knew that his brother had similar thoughts as him.

"May I ask where you got that form?" said Jack.

"My closet," Alfred quickly answered, a frown on his face. "Why?"

"Hmm, nothing… it just looks familiar… similar, to the one I made for a friend of mine's, I mean." His eyes seemed to gaze over a bit. "A long ago..."

"A friend of yours? This old broken thing?" Alfred held up the watch.

Jack shook his head to get ride of the memory and looked at Alfred. "Never you mind it, lad." Resentment passed in Alfred's eyes, hating to be called a kid and treated like one ever since his revolutionary days. However, instead of Leasing out like he did with Arthur, Alfred gritted his teeth, tightened his fist, and held it in, his head lowered. "Let's just get this over with already." A blue spear made of ice replaced his pocket watch, and Jack grabbed it tight. Like a trained solider who exiled in using the weapon, he spun it around a bit before throwing the hint down into the icy ground, causing the area to turn into snow the minute the hint of the spear hit the floor. "Since you've pin the role of the bad guy on me again," Jack smiled, bring up his hand. "I might as well humor you."

Ice crystals came out of his hands and headed towards the group of nations and Arthur made hast to defend them. He stood in front of Alfred and put up a magic barrier against the blowing blizzard and ice crystals.

" _Attendre_ (wait)!" Francis shouted out from his place behind Arthur, blocking himself from the cold and trying not to get blown away by grabbing on to Arthur. "What do you mean we pinned you as the bad guy again?!"

Arthur grunted his teeth and pushed back harder, blocking the strong blow of the wind so that the others had an easier time standing. However, by doing so, Arthur had both his hands pushed into the sharp, cold tips of the ice crystals. He gritted his teeth and bit his lips, refusing to cry out to the feeling of such traveled pain. Arthur glared at Jack, who only smirked back in return.

Jack than smugly shrugged at Francis' question. "Oh nothing," he said, eyes narrowed as he too, increased his attack force, managing to make Arthur wince in pain and for Alfred to call out to him in worry.

"Just that I'm doing this as a favor to a friend, you see," Jack continued. "He couldn't make it, apparently." He shrugged and smiled down at Arthur, who had gritted his teeth and managed to glared right back at him, his eyes cold as the force of Jack's ice push him back.

Peter took hold of his rifle and shot the ice crystals away, giving Arthur a hand. Alfred and the others sighed in relief and Peter held onto one of Arthur's arms as the man slumped down, tried. However, the barrier was still up despite Arthur's condition, and he was breathing heavily, sweat running down his face as he glanced up at Jack.

Peter, though, was glaring at the man and pointed his rifle at him. Kumajiro was standing behind him, box in hand, watching everything, including what the box was doing, once again switching between the worlds and the clock.

Peter shot at Jack a few times, but Jack only smirked and waited for the bullets to come. Peter smiled, thinking he'd done it, however, the bullets stopped just before it could touch Jack and Jack sent the four bullets back with a flick of his hand. Peter's eyes widened in shock, noticing that Jack has added his own winter magic to Peter's magic and had increased the damage hit by 75%.

Upon seeing this, Arthur quickly got up and pulled Peter behind him as the bullets hit the barrier and tried to push through it. Arthur's eyes narrowed on the bullets and soon, they began to turn into gold dust.

Jack, seeing this, also narrowed his eyes and pulled his spear out of the ground and than threw it at Arthur. Arthur's eyes widened and he brought his hands up, bracing for the impact. The spear hit his newly in forced barrier and slowly passed the it.

Arthur was in too much shock at how quickly the spear broke through to put act, and soon found himself almost impaled by the spear had Alfred not pushed him out of the way, causing the spear to only grease his left shoulder.

"We have to get inside!" Alfred shouted, noticing the snow falling down and how cold it had become. Also, he was worried for Arthur's heath. Though he didn't show it, Alfred had noticed Arthur's condition, and he was worried for his former guardian's sake.

Jacked laughed, calling the spear back into his hand. "I'd like to see you try and break my ice, lads," he said. "Not even Ivan Stra-Braginsky could do it, you know."

That startled the others trying to break the ice and get into the tower. If Ivan, the one with the power of General Winter, couldn't do it, then how could they?

Arthur narrowed his eyes and said, "That was because Ivan was alone than. But we are not alone in this," he said. That got everyone's confidence back and they set out on breaking the ice together while Arthur tried to hold Jack, who was preparing another ice crystal attack, back.

"Hmm?" was all Jack said, looking past Arthur, who looked about ready to collapse at any moment now, and smirked at the others trying to break his ice.

"Guys, hurry it up!" yelled Alfred, looking back at Arthur, who was now using his cane, which is beginning to freeze up, to help block the attack. Kumajirou had his hands on one of Arthur's legs to keep himself from flying off, but even he was beginning to freeze up, as ice crystals started forming on his body.

The others gave it their all and attacked the ice together, Peter and Alfred was shooting at it before Peter went to hold Arthur up and get Kumajirou behind him so that he won't freeze any faster. Than, the others used their weapons to cute the place where the bullets had gone it and now seemed to be frozen in because the ice had quickly reformed again. After them came Alfred, punching the ice with all he had and managing to create a large dent that went in halfway through the ice.

"Peter!" Alfred shouted.

Peter turned around and threw Alfred a grenade with his magic symbol on it. Alfred quickly caught it and placed it into the ice after pulling the trigger on it off. Once placed in, the ice began to reform itself and Jack's smile dropped. Everyone ran for cover, but Arthur stayed put and instead, used his other hand to create another protection circle to cover everyone in.

"Ack!" he groan out, and Peter looked up to see blood running down his lips and staining Kumajirou, whom Peter was now holding onto and had placed in between them. Also, different colored ice crystals seemed to be forming on his left shoulder, where Jack's spear had greased him and had drawn blood.

"Arthur!" Peter shouted out upon seeing his guardian's condition, looking concerned.

Arthur looked at him with tired eyes. "I'm fine, Peter," he assured the boy and looked towards the exploded entrance to the tower. "Look, the entrance is open." The smoke cleared and indeed, the ice was broken.

"Let's go!" Alfred shouted and helped Peter with Arthur, who now only had to off block Jack's attack.

Finally, they all managed to get into the tower and the ice reformed completely again. Jack stopped his attack and only looked at them from his place outside the tower. He and Arthur stared at each other for a moment before Jack smirked and turned away, looking up into the dark, snowy sky.

"Well, my job here is done," he whispered, holding out his hand to catch the falling snow. Jack smiled when his snow melted in his hand. "You so owe me big time for this, my dear friend." He turned back and smiled warmly at the people inside, his eyes sad and kind. "Good luck and I hope that the next time we meet, I won't have to hurt you so… Arthur…" And he took a step and disappeared in a sky blue spark of light.

* * *

 **Can you figure out which anime/manga Oz is from? If you don't know, just type in his full name and you'll get the results. Also, I don't own that anime/manga either.**

 **Question Time!**

 **1: What is Luna's relationship to Lucas and Oz?**

 **2: What is Jack's relationship with Lucas?**

 **3: Who was the person who's suppose to stop them, but Jack had to take his place?**

 **Next Chapter: Get That Key!**

 **The group finally made it into the tower! Yay! But what's this, more challenges? Oh, poor Arthur...**

 **Please Review!:)**


	6. Get That Key!

**Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Get That Key!**

"Why isn't he attacking us eh?" Matthew questioned, eyeing Jack's back through the glass ice. "Shouldn't he be able to break his own ice and come after us?" He looked to the others for answers.

"…He can't," Arthur weakly spoke up, gaining everyone's attention. Peter helped him stand and color seemed to be returning to him now that he was no longer being affected by Jack's winter magic, as the ice crystals on his shoulder began to melt and disappear into multi-colored sparks. "He can't enter…the tower…"

"Why not, Angleterre?" Francis questioned, helping Arthur up.

Arthur only shook his head and looked up at the winding stairs before them.

"It doesn't matter why," Mathias spoke up, also looking up. "Just be thankful that he can't come in here to hunt us, and let's just find that key!"

Alfred looked back at Arthur. "Iggy," he said. "Do you know where it is?"

Arthur just stared at him, a deep frown on his face, before he closed his tired eyes and shook his head.

"Isn't it up at the top of the tower?" Antonio questioned, once again surprising everyone. "What? Isn't that always how it's done?"

"...ALRIGHT!" Alfred shouted out. "To the top of the tower we go, than! Let's go guys!"

"Angleterre, will you be alright?" Francis asked, looking at Arthur with concern in his eyes.

Arthur glared at him and said, "I'll be fine, Frog. Just give me a moment."

"He was really strong, wasn't he?" Matthew questioned, holding on to Kumajiro.

"Man," Mathias spoke up, shaking his head. "To be able to reduce the once Great British Empire to a sickly old man like this. He must really be something, that little boy."

"By the way, Arthur," Antonio spoke up cheerfully, a smile on his face. "That boy had a British accent. Actually, the only one with an American accent was the blond, Lucas, so I've been wondering. Were they you're people, Alfred, Arthur?"

"I don't know, bro," Alfred answered honestly. "Lucas didn't feel like one of my people. But does he seems familiar, though. Like I've seen him somewhere before. And those other two guys too…"

Arthur could only stare blankly at Alfred, too tired to correct him. Instead, he just shook his head and Mathias nodded, taking that as his answer before they all made their way toward the spiraled staircase.

Crossing the dark floor, the group suddenly found themselves drowning into it.

"W-What the hell is this!" Alfred shouted, moving with all his might to get to the stairs.

Everyone seemed to be having trouble moving through the thick mud, but Alfred had an easier time due to his super strength and he was finally able to get to the stairs, Matthew holding on to his waist. Mathias and Antonio were right behind him, Mathias dragging Antonio along.

Arthur, on the other hand, gave up due to being too tired and warn out by all the adventures, and so, was drowning much faster than the rest because he had refused to even move, his face going blank as if dead.

" _Angleterre_!" Francis shouted, trying to pull Arthur out.

"Francis," said Arthur, his voice dull of emotion as his white eyes stared unnervingly at Alfred. "Leave me be. Take Peter and get to the others."

"What?! _Non_!" Francis pulled harder and Peter helped him.

"ALFRED!" Arthur yelled, emotion now in his voice as a part of his body came up and out of the mud, causing Francis to almost stumble backwards and fall at the sudden action. Arthur grabbed Peter and easily pulled the shocked child out of the black floor, and threw him over to them. Alfred caught Peter easily and brought the boy down. "Take Peter and go! Francis, go!"

"What?! No, Iggy!" Alfred made to run back to get Arthur and Mathias and Antonio also came back to pull him out.

"We're not…" Alfred moved through the thickening floor that seemed to be eating him up. "…Leaving without… ack, you!" He grabbed onto both Arthur and Francis, and used all of his strength to pull bout of them along. Mathias and Antonio came to help by grabbing onto their other arms, Mathias taking Arthur's and Antonio Francis', and pulled.

"Alfred," Arthur whispered, his white eyes now a clear light green color.

"Don't be so stubborn, Arthur," said Mathias.

"Yeah, _mi amigo_ ," said Antonio, his tone still playful and cheery. "Since when have you ever been one to just give up so easily?"

"Giving up so easily without a fight is so not like you, _Angleterre_ ," Francis shook his head.

"Yeah," said Alfred. "Come on Arthur. Fight! At least try, man…" they were sinking now, almost to their chest.

"Alfred!" Matthew screamed, wanting to come and help them, but the minute he tried, red lightening appeared on the ground and shocked him, burning his foot a bit and prevented him from moving out farther. "Ahh!" Matthew cried out, holding his injured foot and Peter crouched down to look at it.

"Mattie/Matthew!" Alfred and Francis screamed, worried for their Canadian kin.

"Oh dear lord!" Peter shouted out, panicked and wide-eyed. "You're bleeding!" He ripped off a piece of cloth from his sleeves and quickly tied it around the wound to help stop the bleeding. However, that didn't seem to stop the blood from flowing out and Peter's eyes only widened more.

"Arthur!" he screamed towards the Briton. "Do something! Matthew's bleeding won't stop!" Tears fell from his eyes. "Arthur, at this rate, we'll die! We'll all die! Die and never come back!" Arthur did not move. "We may never see each other, or anyone else ever again!"

That seemed to have done it. Arthur's eyes returned to normal, and he finally snapped out of whatever trance he'd been in. And just in time too, as they were now neck deep into the floor.

"No," Arthur had whispered. "I'm not losing her again after I just got her back..." His words confused the others a bit, but they ignored it, for now.

The box sitting beside Matthew and Peter seemed to glow a bit, but only Kumajiro, who was placed over it, noticed. And because he was covering the box, no one other than him noticed the shining blue light.

Colors returned to Arthur's face and he did something that made the floor around them explode, creating a large creator around them, but no one was hurt. He than flicked his cane, which had three magic circles in green color glowing around it, like a sword and got ride of the circles before turning, his face serious, toward the stairs.

"Now that's the Arthur we know," Mathias, who had been dragging him by his other arm, smiled and walked after him.

They finally made it to the stairs and all four fell at Matthew and Peter's feet, tried and almost out of breath. Arthur was fixing Matthew's bleeding wound, a green light glowing from his hand.

"I've only stopped the bleeding," said Arthur, removing his hand and studying the wound with a frown on his face. "But it seems the wound well have to be healed like any ordinary wound that a mortal human has received." He looked at Matthew. "Will you be able to walk, lad?"

Matthew winched and nodded his head. "Yeah, I think so eh," he said, getting up only to stumbled into Arthur's awaiting arms.

"Man, what was that floor made out of?!" said Alfred, on the verge of recovering. "It's even worse than a quick sand. OW!" he held his head and turned to the Briton next to him. "What the hell was that for, Iggy?!"

"For getting us into this bloody mess, you twit! And my name is not Iggy!" Arthur shouted out. Alfred ignored the last part and Arthur sighed before looking up. "Well, we've come this far." He looked back at Alfred. "It's not too late to turn around, you know chums? We don't have to do this, Alfred. You're brother is hurt, and judging by the fact that his wounds won't stop bleeding and almost killed him like a normal person, I believe I now understand why Jack refused to come in here. Or couldn't."

"What do you mean, _Angleterre_?" asked Francis.

"Wait, are you saying that we-?" Antonio spoke up. Arthur blankly turned his face towards him.

"We could really died in here?" questioned Mathias. "Like any normal human? We won't be able to heal fast and come back to life?" Arthur nodded.

"Oh, I don't care!" Alfred finally yelled out after seeing how everyone was taking this news. "I'm still getting that key and meeting the kid again! I have some questions that I'm sure he has answers to!" And he started walking up.

Arthur shook his head. "Ahh, that Alfred," he said, and looked at Matthew. "Will you be alright, Matthew?"

Matthew nodded his head. "Yes," he answered and took a step forward. "We've come this far now. I want to see it through to the very end eh."

"No matter what?" Arthur raised an eyebrow at him.

Matthew looked at Arthur with determination in his eyes. "No matter what," he said. "I'll always be standing by Al's side from now on eh. I don't want to fight with him because it's what my country wants anymore. I don't want to do that with anyone of you anymore eh… and I'm sure Al thinks the same, Arthur."

Arthur sighed. "Fine," he said. "Let's see this through to the end than." And he walked Matthew up to catch up with Alfred, Peter behind him.

Francis, Antonio, and Mathias looked at each other and shrugged before running to catch up with them as well, Francis taking Matthew's other side.

"Since we started this together," he said, a smile appearing on his face as he turned to Matthew. "We might as well end it together. Right Alfred?" He looked up at Alfred, who held his hand out for Matthew to take.

Alfred smiled. "Yeah!" he said.

"By the way," Mathias spoke up, petting Matthew's shoulder. "That was a nice little speech you made back there, Matthew. I admit, I'm touched." He placed a hand to his heart and smiled warmly at Matthew, silently telling him that he felt the same.

"Hmm," mused Antonio. "It's seems I'm able to see and remember who you are now, Matthew."

Matthew's eyes widened as he and the others realized that it was true. Through the times they've been in this place, everyone was able to see and remember who he was. Matthew smiled brightly at that. "Really?" he asked.

The others nodded their heads and made their way up again, helping each other along the way. However, they didn't get very far, as they soon found themselves looking up at moving vines that came rushing down at them.

"What the hell!" Alfred screamed.

Arthur quickly moved to the front and blocked the thorny vines with his cane. However, the attack was powerful and caused Arthur to close his eyes upon impact. Another huge magic circle appeared in front of his cane.

"Come on, chums," he said. "Let's moved." And he began to slowly walk up, opening a path for the group as the vines parted ways for him as if they'd hit a barrier, which, knowing Arthur, they probably had.

They were half way up the stairs when the flowers came and began to blossom their poisons into the air.

Arthur cursed under his breath. "Don't breath in too much of this air!" he ordered. "You'll collapse otherwise!"

"Too late," said Peter, falling over only to have Mathias catch him.

"I've got him!" he said. "But he's burning up, Arthur!"

Again, Arthur cussed and began to push harder. Alfred placed a hand behind Arthur, surprising him and causing him to look back at the American in shock. Alfred only nodded at Arthur and Arthur turned back to his work, Alfred pushing him up. Antonio had replaced Arthur and was now helping Francis with Matthew while Mathias and Peter took the tail, Matthias once again stuck with watching over Peter's unconscious body.

Finally, they made it up to the entrance, which was blocked by vines.

"Ahh," Arthur groaned and turned back to the others, who looked like they were about to fall asleep soon, high with fever.

Arthur himself was not looking so well either, his face fleshed and looking faint. He looked much worse than the others, and that was to be expected, as he was the one in the front and coming in direct contact with the vines the most. His pale cheek and hands had small-bloodied wounds on them, some extending to his arms, but luckily it wasn't bleeding out.

That was when Arthur noticed it through his blurring vision; the giant flower swimming on the black sea under them. Arthur's eyes widened as he noticed the golden light coming off of the six purple lotus flowers swimming around the giant red one in the centered.

Alfred and the others turned around to see what he was looking at and their eyes also widened. Because of the fast rushing vines added to the fact that they were getting sick and too focused on what they were doing, they hadn't had time to look more closely at their surroundings and had missed the thing that could cure them all.

"It's that the mother?" Alfred questioned, for once using a normal volume.

Arthur nodded his head and Mathias said, "If we get ride of it, I think our fever will go away."

Alfred nodded his head and took out his gun. He amid and was about to shoot when Francis stopped him.

"Wait, Alfred!" he said, bring Alfred's attention to him. "It could be one of those flowers that you have to know where to shoot it at to kill it! One wrong move, and it could be disastrous for us all!"

Alfred nodded and turned towards Arthur, who had a frown on his face as he stared blankly at Francis. "Arthur," he spoke up, bring Arthur's attention to him. "Where's its weakness?"

"I don't-" Arthur began, but was interrupted.

"It's mouth," Antonio spoke up, looking at the red flower before turning to Alfred. "Alfred, shoot it at the center. That's where its mouth is. But you have to shoot it at the center exactly."

"Ah, the shine," said Mathias, looking down and seeing a gold light in the middle of the red flower. "It's the core!"

Antonio nodded, his face serious. "The yellow seed like thing in the middle, that's the core. The heart, shoot it there, Alfred."

Alfred nodded his head and amid at the seed. Arthur looked about to say something, but than winched and glanced back behind him to find a hug throne struck from his back to the center to his stomach. He bleed out and looked up, blood dripping from his mouth as he glared at the smiling blond with cold eyes.

The green eyes teen whispered something into Arthur ears, causing Arthur's eyes to widen before pulling his blade out.

All of this went unnoticed by the others however, as they were too focused on Alfred and the screaming of the dying plant. Matthew collapsed just as the vines rotted away and disappeared. However, he was still conscious, if just barley. Francis and Alfred called out his name in worried and went to him.

Arthur had fallen to the ground and was breathing heavily, his eyes wide as he clutched a hand to his heart while the other was on the ground. Antonio stared at Arthur and was about to say something about his pale and bloody condition when one of the six purple lotus flowers appeared in front of him, just as it had appeared in front of everyone, but Peter. There were small gold lights surrounding it and holding the flower in mid air.

The minute the flower appeared, everyone felt better and their fever lessened a bit. Though Peter's was still bad, as the boy would not wake, but at least some colors returned to his face and his breathing slowed down a bit.

" _Mes amies_ (my friends)," said Francis, his eyes wide as he held out his hands to take the holy flower. "I think this is the cure." The minute the flower came into his hand, it turned into a small candy-sized piece.

"What are we suppose to do with it?" Antonio asked.

"Eat it, I think," Matthew whispered, seeing his little bear putting one hand into his mouth and looking at the flower as if it was candy, and one that he really wanted, if the saliva running down his mouth was anything to go by.

For some reason, the poison did not seem to have an affect on Kumajirou, who held onto the black box.

The other's nodded and ate their flower and instantly felt better. Their fever was gone and color returned to their faces.

"Ahh," said Francis. "Such a divine taste!" he squealed. "Amm, _moi_ doesn't even think moi can replicate, or even describe this taste!"

"Ahh," the others agreed, a heavenly smile on their faces.

However Arthur had not touched his yet. "Give mine," he whispered out, breathing heavily and dripping with blood from his wounded stomach. "Give mine, to Peter."

The others finally took note of him and Alfred's eyes winded.

"Arthur/ _Angleterre_!" Alfred and Francis yelled. Alfred quickly made his way to Arthur's side and helped him up while Francis had been about to move, but looked down at Matthew and stayed put. However, he looked at Arthur with worry and concern.

"I think you should take the flower, Arthur," said Mathias, still carrying Peter, but looking worriedly at Arthur.

"Hmm," Antonio nodded his head in agreement. "You might just be the only one who can save him after all. And probably get us out of here alive."

"Yeah Iggy," Alfred added in, holding the flower candy to Arthur's mouth. "You should eat this." Arthur turned his head away. Seeing this, Alfred explode. "If you won't take it yourself, than I'll force feed it to you!" Alfred grabbed Arthur's head and tried to force the candy into his mouth, but Arthur resisted with great verger.

" _Angleterre_ ," Francis smiled slyly, an amused glint in his eyes. "Didn't you say that you would watch over us so that we don't cause trouble? How are you going to do that if you're not at your best, _mon chere_ (my dear)?"

Arthur only glared at him, but bit his lips and refused to open his mouth to retorted back. No, he was not falling for it. Nope, not happening. Francis sighed and Arthur smirked at his victory as Alfred climbed onto him and tried to force his mouth opened.

"GOD DAMN IT ARTHUR!" Alfred finally snapped. "DON"T MAKE ME MOUTH FEED IT TO YOU!"

Something flashed in Arthur's eyes and he frowned, bring his gaze back to Alfred. "DON'T YOU DARE-!" he was interrupted when Alfred slipped the candy into his mouth and covered his nose and mouth with his hand, trying to force Arthur to swallow.

"Swallow...it. Swallow it, or I'll kiss you," Alfred growled out, his face serious. Arthur, struggling, only glared back at him with cold green eyes. "I mean it, Arthur. Swallow it, or I will do it." Arthur finally swallowed it and Alfred smiled, letting go. "See, that wasn't so hard now was it."

Arthur glared at him, his bleeding was stopped, fever gone and color had returnedto his face. "Idiotic git," he muttered out. "Why couldn't you just do as I say?" He stood up and glanced over at Peter, who was still asleep in Matthew's arms. Arthur walked down, his eyes warm, and reached out for the child. "Here, I'll take him, Mathias." He took Peter into his arms. "Thank you." He nodded at Mathias, who smiled.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he said. "I'm used to looking after him by now." Arthur smiled.

"Alright than!" Alfred shouted out, turning towards the opened entrance. "Now that that's done. Let's go!" he held a first into the air and ran to the top.

The others shook their heads and fallowed up, walking instead of running, as both Matthew and Arthur were still injured, though Arthur seemed to be doing pretty will for someone who was just about to die from bleeding out. In fact, he seemed to be doing even better than Matthew was, and Matthew had only been shocked and burnt. But Francis and Mathias supposed that there was a magical explanation behind that and did not asked Arthur about it. He already had too much on his hands, as it were, they glanced down at Peter.

"Slow down, _mon petit Alfie_ ," said Francis, stepping into the room, his eyes closed and a small smile on his face. "Some of us are old and injured you know." He finally opened his eyes and took an unconscious step back, surprised.

"You know, Francis," Alfred whispered under his breath, not taking his eyes away from what was in front of them. "If we weren't in this situation right now, I would call you out for calling yourselves old."

"And I would've hit you for that comment, you bloody Frog," said Arthur, coming up behind them with Mathias. "I'm not that old." Alfred scoffed and Arthur glared at him as he carefully placed Peter down on the floor and leaned him up against the wall.

"Whoa, what are those things?" said Antonio, after he and Francis dropped Matthew off next to Peter.

"Sheesh!" Alfred ran to cover his mouth, one eye on his opponents, who had moved a bit. "Shut up, Tony. Those guys don't like loudness."

"Oh?" smirked Arthur, standing up. "And how did you find that out, Alfred?" he crossed his arms in a smudged manner.

Alfred glared at him, but did not answer. "Just a feeling," he said. "But look." He pointed past the four shadowed guards and to the black pillar behind them. "There's the key." The others looked to where he was pointing and indeed found the key resting there.

"So how do we get it?" asked Mathias.

"Easy," smiled Alfred, still whispering. "I attack, you guys back me up."

The others sighed. "Arthur?" Mathias turned back towards Arthur, hoping and pleading with his eyes that the man had a better plan than the one his former charge came up with.

Luckily, Arthur was nothing if not known for his brilliant mind and excellent tactics. "I'll stay guard," said Arthur, looking down at the unconscious Peter sleeping on Matthew's lap. Matthew smiled up at him and whispered a sorry. Arthur assured him that it was fine before looking up at the others again. "I'll also play back up. So you guys are on offence. However, I would like, as much as I hate to say it, Francis… to stay behind with me and guard me as well as to be back up for you lot, who are going to attack. Mathias, you deal with the guards on the left, Antonio the right. And while those two are distracting them Alfred, you well go get the key. Clear?" the others nodded and got into position.

"So how do we get their attention again," Antonio spoke up.

"Like THIS!" said Alfred. The guards turned to him. "Opps."

"Alfred you wanker!" Another guard stopped charging at Alfred and turned to Arthur, who quickly caste a protective barrier around himself and the two others with him. "Francis, you're on your own."

"What? _Angleterre_!" he held up his sword to block the guard's sword.

Matthew summoned his scythe and threw it at the guard, only for it to pass right threw and burry itself on one of the polls holding up the tower.

"It passed right threw eh," whispered Matthew, his eyes wide.

He was not the only one to have realized that, as Mathias and Antonio also noticed it when they tried to hit the guards going after Alfred, who now had the box in his arms after taking it from Kumajiro.

Antonio stopped and shrugged. "They're shadows," he said. "What did you expect?"

"Well than, how do we get ride of them?!" Mathias asked. Because he raised his voice, two guards stopped and moved towards him.

"LIGHT!" Alfred screamed, not willing to shoot in fear of actually injuring others or touch these things because, to him, they were ghosts. "WE NEED LIGHT!" Because of the loudness of his voice, all four Nightshadows moved towards him again.

" _ANGLETERRE_!" Francis screamed back at Arthur, his volume causing the guard he'd been facing off with to turn back and advance towards him once again.

Arthur was chanting again, his eyes closed. Once he opened his eyes and swung his cane horizontally in front of him, the room turned into complete darkness. "Well…" said Arthur, holding onto his cane. "That went well."

"Ahh, you useless dark wizard!" Francis shouted out.

"Ehh…" said Arthur, his eyes trailing off to the side, a small smile on his face.

"Can anyone see anything?" Mathias yelled out from somewhere within the void.

"DOES ANYONE HAVE A LIGHTER?!" Alfred screamed from somewhere in the darkness, probably still running off to who knows where. "Oh wait," he stopped running. "I have one." Everyone face-palmed themselves, though Francis did it inwardly, because he, unlike the others, was actually engaged in combat and could not pull his hand away nor could he afford to take his eyes off his opponent, who was pushing him back just a bit.

Alfred dug into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, lighting it. He than turned just in time to see the three guards coming at him and closed his eyes, holding the lighter out in front of him and screamed.

Mathias and Antonio placed the tip of their axes down and leaned on it, watching with amusement as the shadows shield themselves from the light and soon disappeared into black ashes.

"Wow, what useless guards," said Antonio.

"Fetal flaw," Mathias whispered, a smile on his face.

Seeing what Alfred had done, Francis took out his own lighter and lit it in front of his opponent, causing the guard to do the same as the others and turn into ashes.

"Alright!" Alfred shouted, a big smile on his face. "Now that that's done and over with, get us out of here, Iggy!"

"Oh pipe down, you git, and let me think…" Arthur waved them off, turning to the side and getting into a thinking pose. "Now, what did I say again?"

"Ahh, this is going to take FOR-EV-ER!"

"Honestly Arthur," said Mathias.

"Oh belt up!" Arthur shouted at them. "Do you want to get out of here or not?! Good lord!" Arthur raised his cane and his magic circle appeared from under him. He closed his eyes and began chanting.

The circle glowed and everyone found themselves being lifted up off the ground. Then, the darkness in the room was absorbed by Matthew's scythe that was stuck on the poll still, and everyone found themselves returned to the original London, England instead of the bleak one from before.

Once it finished absorbing all the darkness that was caused by Arthur, the scythe appeared in Matthew's hands and the Canadian found his foot had healed completely. "Eh?" he said, as they all fell to the ground.

Kumajiro landed on Matthew's lap and Peter landed his head softly on the bear's stomach, still asleep, but no longer burning up. When Matthew looked at the back of the giant clock outside, he understood why. It was already way past Peter's bedtime, and judging by Arthur's face, he'd known this already. After all, the boy has had quite a day of adventure today, so of course he'd be in a deep sleep.

Speaking of Arthur, Matthew wondered why he didn't look so happy to be back and why he was glaring at the clock.

"ALIGHT!" Alfred's shout brought Matthew out of his thoughts. "LET"S GET THAT KEY!" Alfred ran for the key just as Matthew saw Arthur bringing his cane down to the ground out of the corner of his eyes.

As soon as the cane hit the ground and made a clinging sound, the floor around the stone pillar collapsed and Alfred almost fell in in his haste to get the key.

"Alfred!" Matthew screamed, running to him, but Mathias got there first and pulled the American back so that he wouldn't fall in.

"Whoa, thanks man," said Alfred, before looking down at the collapsed floors around the key. "Damn, Iggy. What the fuck is this? Your floor suddenly collapsed and there's nothing but darkness down there! What the hell man!"

Matthew said something, but because they were now back in the real world, no one was able to remember him now. No one saw him, nor did they hear his question directed at Arthur.

"Oh I won't be so sure that it's only darkness, Alfred," said Arthur. "Get you're face away from there, lad. I have a bad feeling about it-"

Alfred moved back just as fire flared up from the darkness. "Whoa!" he said. "What the hell?!" He turned to Arthur. "Iggy, you're tower is weird. It spits out fire!" Arthur face-plumbed himself. "I mean, its pretty cool and all! But dude! How the heck am I suppose to get the damn key now?!"

"Why don't you just give up than, lad?" said Arthur.

"What?! Give up?! No way! Not when we've come this far! Besides, quitting isn't HEROCI AT ALL MAN!"

Arthur sighed. "Well than," he said. "How are you going to get past this? And just so you know, I'm not helping you. You are on you're for this one, so figure it out ourselves." Arthur picked Peter's head up and placed him on his lap instead, sitting down beside Kumajiro and giving him a candy from his pockets.

"Yeah, WHAT-EVER! We'll figure this out ourselves, and we don't need your stupid none existence magic anyways!"

"Ac-! None existence?! I beg your pardon! Who enhanced your tools when you were fighting against those colossi? Who put up a protective shield to block us from Jack's attack? Who got us up to the tower? And WHO, pray tell, got us here?!"

"Phew, what-ever, dude," Alfred waved it off. "Now stand back everyone! The hero is going to jump over there and get that key!"

"Alfred, are you stupid?" asked Antonio.

" _Ja_ (yeah)," agreed Mathias. "How are you going to get past that?" He motioned to the flaming pillars shooting out of the abyss now and again.

Alfred laughed and handed Matthew the box. "Don't worry," he said, looking ready to run. "The hero never dies!" And he was off, running towards the key, and then he jumped over the hole in the floor, fire still flaring up at odd times and intervals.

Arthur moved up a bit, worried and pulled back his fist from reaching out to Alfred. Alfred landed safety on the other side and Arthur breathed out a quite sigh of relief before sitting back against the wall, letting go of his fist and staring at the key with narrowed eyes.

"YEAH!" said Alfred, upon landing. "THE HERO MADE IT DUDES! Told ya-!" Alfred's eyes followed the key as it fell down from the pillar and landed on the floor. It made two bounces and was only one bounce away from falling into the inferno. "NO!" Alfred reached out for it.

"ALFRED!" the others called after him, even Arthur.

"Got it!" Alfred gripped the sliver rose key in his hand, just over the inferno abyss.

"Alfred your hand!" Arthur called out, eyes wide.

Alfred quickly pulled his hand back just as another fire flare shot out, burning him a bit.

"Ss-ah," he gripped his brunt hand in pain, tears willing up a little. "I'm okay. I'm okay." He said the last two words a little louder so that the others would hear. Though slow, his hand started to heal, but the pain was still there.

Once they heard those words, though, the group relaxed a little.

"All right Alfred," said Francis. "Now that you have the key, come back here."

"What?! You want me to cross that again?! No way dudes! Once is enough! Just throw me the damn box!"

The others looked at Matthew and Arthur frowned, petting Peter's head as he slept away, all the while glaring at the box, but never made a move to get up and go over to the group.

Francis nodded at Matthew and he nodded back in understanding before moving up, the others stepped back and parted ways for him. Scythe no longer in hand, Matthew threw the box over the flames, hopping it'd be high enough that the flames won't reach it, and that it'll land in Alfred's awaiting hand.

Alfred reached up a land, waiting for the box and also hoping that it won't be going through the flame. However, the box did go through the flame and the others stared at it in horror, thinking it'll burn into dust, but the box made it out and into Alfred's awaiting hand without burning.

Alfred was confused at that, but shrugged it off and soon began to place the key into the lock on the box, a happy smile on his face.

Arthur's eyes narrowed. "Jack," he growled out, eyes narrowed and looking about ready to stand up, but the shadows held him back, causing his eyes to widen when it pulled him down. "No," he whispered. "NO ALFRED!"

But it was too late. Alfred turned the key and unlocked the box, causing Alfred to let go of it in burning shock.

The clock struck 1 and silver bells rang as everything turned black.

* * *

 **Question Time! )if you're not going to answer, at lest think about it)**

 **1: Why does Arthur keep getting attacked?**

 **Next Chapter: We Meet Again**

 **The box is finally opened! Now Alfred and co. must face the challenge that comes with it. Watch out everyone, these guys might just be worse than the damned mirror, if you know what I mean. Next time, let's have a look into some of France's past and his feelings towards it. Antonio is very excepting, but even he has worries for the upcoming futur. Mathias meets someone interesting, and what's this, Matthew finally finds out the identity of the woman in his and Alfred's dreams? And let's see what Alfred has to face for bring the two worlds together.**

 **Please Review!:)**


	7. We Meet Again

**I apologize before hand if I did not get the words or accents right. I used google translate for this and my computer does not do accents, well I don't know how to set up that program, so please just bare with the European language not having accents when they should.**

 **Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea. The song _Asa to Yoru no Monogatari_ belongs to Sound Horizon. **

* * *

**Chapter 7: We Meet Again**

The box hit the floor and the darkness began to shed itself away into ashes to reveal a silver box with just a few hits of the original blacks on it. Arthur, the shadow still gripping his leg and holding him back, tried to reach for it, but the box opened itself up first and blue lights sprung out, soon followed by a silver clock slowly rising up.

"No," Arthur whispered. "No. Ack!" He tried to pull away from the shadows. "Damn this cursive seal…" he held onto his chest, tears willing up in his eyes. "Damn those girls for releasing the my limiters all at once and than left me dying on the bloody bleeding floor… and curse that Bloody Cherisher Cat for this pain. Ack!" The clock began to glow and so did the symbol on Arthur's chest, covered behind his hand.

* * *

The piano sounded throughout the darkness, followed by the violin and a ticking sound.

Alfred found himself surrounded by darkness and old shaped clocks appearing at every corner he turned and changing shapes with every seconds ticking by.

 _The story of the morning life begins_

A girl's voice rang out within the darkness and Alfred turned every which way, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from, or at least find someone other than himself in this place.

 _And the evening that life ends_

Another girl sang.

 _Ah… this loneliness of ours_

Now a male voiced joined the two.

 _Bears resemblance to a carved jewel_

 _The meaning of life's beginning_

The scene flashed to a young America standing up from the tall grass and looking out onto the horizon. Than, he turned around and gave off a big smile. Alfred thought the child had seen him and was now running towards him, but he was wrong. The child ran past him and into the arms of an awaiting England. Alfred watched with envious eyes at the two's happiness.

 _The meaning of life's ending_

The same woman in blue fell in the darkness, tears in her eyes.

 _You are alive right now_

Revolutionary America now stood, his back turned to Alfred. Just as he shifted his gaze towards Alfred, the old flag of America appeared out of nowhere and wrapped itself around him. Alfred tried to reach out to his younger self, who walked away from him, the old colonial flag going with him.

 _The fifth horizon_

Alfred stopped as light shone from the darkness, the sun rising, and younger America began to walk toward it.

 _Ah… I wonder if there's a story there…?_

Alfred covered his eyes at the blinding light, and when he opened them, he found himself watching one of the battles during the American Revolution pass him by, and than he saw young America and his troops in front of a river, looking ready to cross. Finally, Alfred saw the White House burning in the background. Canada was standing over him; his foot on America's chest and a murderous look in his eyes. America was crying.

"Get it through your thick head, America," Canada growled out, his voice laced with venom and making Alfred flinch. "Unlike you, I don't want to leave England."

The fire burnt brighter and blinded Alfred's line of vision.

* * *

 _Crying all the way_

 _We came alone the way_

Francis found himself alone and in darkness. He'd heard the music play out, and tried to look where it was coming from in hopes of finding an exit. As he ran, chasing after the horizon, Francis noticed the images flashing past him, the images from his past.

There was he and little England, than him and Scotland before and after their breaking apart due to religious differences, and finally, the 100-year war. Francis closed his eyes at Jeanne's burning, holding down the aching in his heart and pushing forward without looking back.

 _Holding the same sorrow in our breasts_

As he ran, Francis can make out the time France met and spent with little Canada, and he smiled at those warm memories. Before it shifted to him letting little Canada walk away with England. Francis knew he had cried that day and had wanted to do something to take his little boy back, but there was nothing he could do. France could do nothing, but watched as another man took Canada, Matthew, the little boy Francis thought of as his own son, away from him and felt his heart being torn apart.

Than the scene shifted and Francis saw France pointing his gun at little Seychelles, the first time they meet. After that, he gave her the two red ribbons to tie her hair with and than he saw France carrying her on his shoulder as they walked along the beach, happy and content. She had been a great distraction, a replacement for Canada... However, he rarely had time for her due to his trying to get Matthew back from Arthur and France's many battles with other nations, mainly England.

And than England came and took her away too. Granted he'd actually sold her out to him, in a way. But after that warm goodbye, which wasn't as bad as Francis had thought it'd be. It certainly didn't make him cry, just a little sad. He didn't see her again after that, not until a least half a century or so later, when he went back to visit her only to see her all grown up and reminding him of Jeanne.

But than she was taken away again, or rather, kidnapped, by England back to London with him for "proper" training on how to be a lady.

The next time France saw her again would be at least 30 years or so after World War II, when she decided to declare her independence from Great Britain and regain some of her lost freedom. However, she still stood by with England as one of his Common Wealth nations despite Francis' many attempts of talking her out of it. He had even gone to such great lengths as to even kidnap her from Arthur's mansion while he had been away on a business trip, one that he could not easily leave nor could he avoid, for doing so may become the death of England's muggle population, and Francis knew that.

 _Laughing all the way, we go along the way_

 _Off past the distant horizon_

Finally, Francis reached the end and there, he found his Napoleon self bearing his blade down on Holy Roman, who was kneeling underneath him, looking up at him and daring France to try and kill him. Than, Prussia showed up in his old clothing, looking at the scene with a frown on his face, and his eyes narrowed accusingly at Francis, almost as if he could see him.

"No," Francis whispered, shaking his head. "No. NO!" He reached out to stop his younger self, but was unable to as the scene faded into pieces and Francis looked up after it. Tears fell down his face as he held out his hand to catch the fallen ashes.

"I'm sorry," he quietly whispered out.

 _Coming from lips_

 _Ah… Sing my song…_

 _La vie…_

 _A story connecting everyday?_

"Well, that was a nice show," said a voice from behind him. Francis turned around at the British accent, thinking it was Arthur.

However, whom he found was not Arthur, but a blond haired, green eyes teen sitting on a round table, under a tree, sipping tea.

The setting was dark, but it was a forest and they were next to a glowing blue pound filled with different colored lotus flowers in it. The table was also made out of vines, woods, leaves, and flowers as well. The vines faintly reminded Francis of the ones they'd come in contact with on their way up the tower, and he wondered about the rose colored flower the blonde was playing with the tips of his figure, twisting the vines and holding it above ground.

"I must say," continued the blonde, causally waving his hand and creating more seats, tea sets and silverwares on the table using his vines to give them form.

As soon as the shapes of the silverwares were formed, the vines crystallized and turned into a dark green color before shattering away to reveal silver metal plates, forks and knives. As soon as the plates appeared, snacks and sweets appeared with it.

"The burning reminds me of the time with my own wife's accusation of witchcraft…" the blond continued.

Francis did not even bother to question his words after the explanation he got from Jack.

" _Bonjour Monsieur_ (hello mister)," the teen greeted in perfect French, grouting back Francis' memories of young England speaking fluent French, and his eyes widened. How could he have forgotten that French was England's national langue for over 300 years? Francis wanted to cuss at that.

" _Soin de prendre un siege et le the avec moi_ (care to take a seat and have some tea with me)?" The teen's question brought Francis out of his thoughts and Francis awkwardly took a seat on the green chair decorated with rose colored flowers.

The smiling teen pored a cup of tea of Francis and handed it to him. "Ahh," said Francis, taking the cup and smelling in the sweet flowery sent. " _Merci_." Francis took a sip of the gold-brown colored tea and found himself relaxing from the experience. Then he opened his eyes and smiled at the blond.

Francis was suspicious, yet cannot help feeling like he knew this boy and respected him greatly, as if he was his leader. But Francis knew he'd never meet the boy before. And not only that, but this boy had a British accent and was obviously British, if his manners and liking for tea and sweets were anything to go by.

" _Desole_ (sorry)," he said to the blond. " _Mais je crains que je na pas tres bien saisi votre nom. Donc, si je peux demander, tu t'appelles comment_ (but I'm afraid I didn't quite catch your name. So, if I may ask, what is your name)?"

The blond put his cup boy, thinking. "Hmm," he said, switching to English. "My name hah? _Eh bien, je dois beaucoup de noms_ (well, I have many names)… _Mais je suppose_ (but I suppose)…" He looked up at Francis. "Evan. _Je m'appelle Evan Walker. Heureux de vous rencontrer a nouveau, Monsieur Francis Bonneyfoy_ (pleased to meet you again, Mr. Francis Bonnefoy)." He held out a hand for Francis to shake.

Francis came out of his shock and shook Evan's awaiting hand. "I'm sorry," he said through forced smile. "But have we met before?" They let go of each other's hands. "You said we have, mais excusez-moi for not remembering where."

Evan just smiled. "Tell me, _Monsieur Francis_ ," he said, taking up his cup. "Do you believe in another life? A life before this one?"

"You mean… reincarnations?" he asked. " _Oui_ , I do." He thought back to Lisa.

Evan smiled at his answer before turning his head to the side. " _Vous joindre a nous_ (care to join us)?" he said to the darkness beside him. " _Monsieur France_?"

Francis was startled by that comment and opened his eyes to stare at the teen only to shift it off to the side, to where the teen was looking at. And that was when he saw it, his Napoleon self stepping out of the darkness, a frown on his face and a serious look in his eyes as he bowed to the blond haired teen before shifting his gaze to Francis, who flinched and tried to forget about his bloodied sword that had dealt the final blow on Holy Rome.

* * *

 _Crying all the way_

 _We go along the way_

 _Holding the same sorrow in our breasts_

 _Laughing all the way_

 _We go along the way_

Antonio smiled, gripping his axe in his hand, and walked toward the horizon.

 _Off past the distant horizon_

 _Coming from lips_

 _Ah… Sing my song…_

 _La vie…_

 _A story connecting each of us_

Antonio walked out of the light and came to find a tea party being held in the dark, wrapped dimension before him.

"Ah," said the host sitting at the head of the table. " _Senor Antonio_! Just in time for tea. Come, join us!" The blond motioned for him to sit at the table full of dolls sitting off to the side.

But those dolls weren't ordinary dolls though, no. They were talking, and flying all around, and were actually moving, just like this dimension. It hung it mid air as if in outer space, and although the pasties and silverwares stayed on the table, some things were still flying around here and there. To make matters worse, that boy had a black top hat on his head, decorated with playing cards, flowers, cloth, and feathers. And there was a white rabbit off to one side of him, while a black one was on another side. He called the white one Alyssa and the black one Alice when he offered tea and cookies to them. And although those two dolls didn't move like the rest, their eyes seemed to be shining with life, unlike the other dolls in this dimension.

Antonio smiled and sat down, leaning his axe on the table.

"Care for some tea?" asked the Briton, holding out a cup of tea for him with a cheerful smile.

" _Si, gracias_ (yes, thank you)," said Antonio, taking the cup and pulling down a chair to sit in it. "You're Oz right? Oz Vessalius?"

Oz put his cup down and said, "Si Senor. It's nice to know that you remembered my name. Even though we don't often interact much, it still warms this old soul's heart to know that you know my name, or at least, one of my many names, little Tony." Spain opened his eyes in confusion at being called little by a kid who should be younger than him.

"Sooo," Oz continued, passing a pastry into Antonio's plate. "I heard that you wanted to become a separate person from your country's personal? Is that right?"

" _Si_!" Antonio quickly answered with a bright smile. "Though, I actually only followed because I wanted to know if…"

"You're worried," Oz pointed out. "Worried that Spain will disappear soon. That you will disappear soon…"

Antonio's eyes saddened over and he looked down. " _Si_ ," he admitted. "I believe we are all afraid of disappearing. Even America… with his many states unstable, and some of us countries being pulled apart from both sides by the rising nations… Or in Inglaterra's case, his family breaking apart by trying to declare independence from the UK."

Oz nodded in understanding. "Yes," he agreed, his eyes trailing off to the side. "England has that problem. Has been having it from the very beginning… but back to you, my little friend." His eyes landed on Antonio's focused face. "Your economy is also a great matter of concern, correct?"

Oz placed his hands down on the table and placed his chin on top of it, gazing at Antonio's worried face with a strange knowing look in his ancient eyes. Antonio avoided the blonde's eyes, finding it unnerving. Almost if he could see right through him, right to Antonio's soul, and not the soul of his people. Not Spain.

" _Si_ ," Antonio answered, his eyes sad. "Especially because of my economy… But also," he finally looked Oz in the eye. "I don't want to fight with my friends and family because it's what my country wants anymore. I want to be able to stand up for myself and do something. I don't want… I don't want to loss another friend…" Antonio looked down in sadness as he thought of Gilbert before shaking his head. "Not like that. Not ever again."

"Hmm," Oz leaned back into his chair. " _Has oido que el senor Espana_ (You heard that, mister Spain)? _Antonio quiere separar ahora_ (wants to separate now)."

" _Si_ ," said a voice coming from where Antonio sat, startling him, as he knew he hadn't said that, yet it was his voice that said it. Than, Antonio watched in surprise as another him stepped out from himself and was now standing next to him, dressed in his old conquering days. Antonio's mouth hung opened as he stared wide-eyed at his younger self. Or should he call him his double instead?

" _Escuche_ (I heard)," continued his conquistador self. " _Hola_ (hello)," he greeted cheerfully, taking off his hat. " _Puedo sentarme_ (may I sit)?"

" _Si_." Oz replied in his usual cheerful voice. " _Adelante_ (go ahead). _Ayudate_ (help yourself)."

" _Gracias_!" Spain sat down next to Antonio and helped himself to tea and sweets. Antonio was still gaping at him, wide-eyed like a fish out of water.

"Who are you?" he asked. When Spain turned to him with confusion in his smiles, he tried again. " _Quien eres_?"

" _Estoy Espana, quien mas_ (I'm Spain, who else)?"

Antonio only stared at him for a long moment before shrugging. "Hm-kay!" He accepted it just like that and went back to eating sweets again, a cheerful smile on his face.

Oz smiled and looked up at the dark sky. "I wonder how things are going with Francis? Elder brother really took a liking to him… as strange as it was." He than returned his gaze to the two Spaniards who were now talking with each other in a friendly manner, and smiled. "Hmm, I wonder when Arthur will be able to escape Hi-chan's shadows and come for tea…?" He took a sip of his tea, his gaze looking upward.

* * *

 _The story of the morning life begins_

 _And the evening that life ends_

 _Ah… this transience of ours_

 _Bears resemblance to a beautiful flower_

Arthur, holding Peter in one hand, tried to reach for the black rose that was blooming as the clock ticked away in the background, but he was too late. The flower bloomed and soon, its black petals scattered away and out of Arthur's reach.

"No," Arthur whispered, tears staining his eyes as he stopped resisting the shadows for just a moment. "Alfred…" He held the sleeping Peter closed to his chest and wept in silence.

 _The windmill of the sun_

 _The cradle of the moon_

 _A story of wandering_

 _A broken doll_

 _A man's corpse_

 _A dark story of wasted time_

* * *

Matthew found himself standing on a waist land of brown dirt after he'd past the horizon. He looked around, Kumajiro in his arms. Matthew began to walk around the place.

 _Ah… go and travel around in my place…_

 _I wonder if-_

 _A story of my coming to life exists in this world?_

"Mommy!" a voice shouted from behind him and Matthew turned around to find a young him running past and into a brown haired woman's awaiting arms.

"Matthew," said the woman dressed in blue, her hair and red ribbon blowing in the wind as she hugged the child.

Matthew's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the brown haired woman before him.

 _The racket of coming to life_

 _The windmill of the sun_

 _The peace of going around to death_

 _The cradle of the moon_

"Michelle?" Brown eyes turned to Matthew and the woman smiled.

* * *

 _We are wandering around_

 _Windmills swaying in the reminiscence_

 _Traveling around, no matter what land it's in_

 _Let's sing a song_

 _This is-_

 _My story of life ending before it began_

Mathias was sailing on a ship, feeling the cool breeze of the wind.

"Ah, I miss this," he said, a contempt smile on his face.

"I'll bet," came a masculine voice from behind him.

Mathias quickly turned around, his axe ready for battle and his eyes narrowed on the intruder.

"Hello, Mathias," waved a black haired teen with interesting blue eyes. The teen was dressed in an all out black suit, but for some reason, Mathias could see an outline of blue coming off of his form.

"Who are you?" Mathias questioned, his eyes suspicious.

"Who am I? How sad that you don't remember." The teen thought about his answer for a moment before giving a reply to his question. "Hmm, I suppose I'll have to reintroduce myself than. But what name…" He thought about if for a moment before nodding in decision. Once decided, the teen jumped off the railing and came to stand in front of Mathias, a big friendly smile on his face and his hand held out in front of him. "Hi. I'm Kenric. Kenric O'Neil, it's nice to meet you again, Simon Mathias Denson."

Even though he knew he shouldn't, Mathias couldn't help his body from shaking the boy's hand. As soon as they touched, a warm feeling of familiarity ran through Mathias' body and he quickly pulled his hand away when he felt the pain on his left side.

"Ack!" he said, touching the spot that burned. "What did you do to me?" he asked the teen.

The teen just smiled. "Nothing," he said. "Just giving you back what was rightfully yours to began with."

Mathias' eyes narrowed dangerously, but the teen didn't flinch away from him. "Who are you?" he asked. "What do you want with me?"

Kenric blinked. "Who am I?" he repeated the question, eyebrow raised. "I already told you, my name is Kenric. As for what I want… well…" He smiled widely like a wolf that caught it's pray right where it wanted, his blue eyes shining.

Than, he disappeared and reappeared again right behind Mathias, a cold hand to his throth as he whispered, "I want you back with me."

Mathias froze at those words, before recomposing himself and swung his axe at the teen, who jumped back a few feet, the wolf-like smile still on his face. "If it wasn't for Jack freezing me up before I came here, I would already be taking you back with me, by force if need me my little Monkey. But than, that would be no fun, now would it?" His eyes narrowed on Mathias' form. "Denmark."

Mathias watched as another version of himself jumped out from him and headed for Kenric, axe raised at the ready and a mad smile on his face. Kenric blocked it with his sword that he pulled out from thin air, the blue gem on his silver ring glowed blue around the hand that pulled the black sword out.

Mathias shrugged. "Yeah, thin air," he whispered. "Why not. Can't get any worse than him standing in the air or…" he looked around. "This. This entire experience…" he face-plumed himself. "Oh, Norge, I need you…"

" _Du_ (You)," his other whispered in a dangerous, yet exited tone.

" _Danmark_ ," said Kenric, in Danish.

Denmark's eyes narrowed and his smile widened. " _Du_ ," he repeated. " _Jeg har ventet pa dig_ (I've been waiting for you). _Alle denne gang_ (all this time)." He pushed with his axe and Kenric moved back after countering, a frown on his face.

Than, his eyes gazed over a bit. "Ahh, that idiotic baby brother," Kenric whispered. "Can't even keep Arthur…" His eyes returned to normal just as Denmark came back at him. " _Je er ked af, men det synes jeg kan ikke holde laenge_ (I'm sorry, but it seems I can't stay long). _Jeg nodt til at ga og gemme Lukcas inden han bliver fanget af Arthur og Jack_ (I have to go and save Lucas before he gets caught by Arthur and Jack)," he explained. " _Jeg haber du kan relatere til jobbet af en olde bror, Danmark_ (I hope you could relate to the job of an older brother, Denmark). _Hvis ikke, end du prove, mindst_ (if not, than please try, at least)."

"Hmm, _fint_." Denmark pulled back his axe. " _Men jeg forventer, at du komme tilbage og afslutte det med mig, du horer_ (but I expect you to come back and finish this with me, you hear)?"

" _Ja, jeg forstar_ (yes, I understand)," said Kenric. " _Jeg vil falde med en gang imellem, dont du bekymre dig_ (I'll drop by once in a while, don't you worry)." He than turned to Mathias and smiled, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement. "I'll see you later, Mathias! And I promise next time we meet, you'll be back by my side again!" And he disappeared into blue flames.

* * *

 _Ah… even if we can't meet again_

 _You have a story of living right now_

 _Keep singing_

 _So that you won't lose your way_

Alfred watched as England wept on the ground, the rain pouring down on them.

"You used to be so… big," America said, before turning away and Alfred swore he locked eyes with the Nation, taking him by surprise. But he was relieved when the nation turned away with his troops.

Than, Alfred looked back at the crying England and his eyes saddened over. "Arthur," he whispered, reaching out a hand, but the strong blowing wind stopped him.

 _The valley between morning and evening…_

 _The flame flickers…_

 _Seizing the jewel…_

 _Reaching out an arm…_

 _When the windmill turns…_

The scene than changed again, and Alfred found himself being pulled forward by some invisible force and looking at a map of a different world as he rushed past them and to an island at the top, hidden within the clouds. He landed in front of the white gate heavenly gate and looked around.

Alfred then looked up and came face to face with the smiling blond who gave him the box.

"Hello Alfred," he greeted, sitting on top of the Chinese gate, and holding out his own golden pocket watch in one hand while the other rested on the rims of the gate. He than closed the watch and jumped down from the gate to land gracefully in front of Alfred. "Had a nice experience going down memory lane?"

Alfred's eyes narrowed. "You," he said.

The child bowed his head in a butler like way. "Eric Kingsley," he introduced himself. "Pleased to meet you again, Alfred F. Jones."

 _The stardust glitters…_

 _An angel is separated…_

 _A beautiful fantasy…_

 _In alcoholic dreams…_

Eric looked off to the side and Alfred followed his gaze. From out of the dark and gray clouds came young Revolutionary Alfred.

"Hello, America," Eric greeted cheerfully.

America, face still serious, bowed his head. "Hello, Lord Eric," he greeted back, before turning to Alfred, who was still a bit shocked to see his younger, more serious self.

The image of England crying alone on the muddy ground came into his mind, and Alfred took an unconscious step back. Eric disappeared like clouds and reappeared behind Alfred, his eyes sharp and hard.

"Kill him, Alfred," he ordered in a strong, deep voice not belonging to that of a child his appearance indicated.

Alfred was startled and he could feel it than. Eric slipped the gold sword into Alfred's hand and had him gripped it tightly.

"Kill him," he commanded, his eyes looking up at Alfred before shifting to America, who shifted his position to face Alfred, his face blank. "And get this over with." Alfred hesitated.

"Come now, Alfred. Do you not you wish to be free of him?"

Alfred slowly lifted his sword and pointed it at America, who just looked back at him blankly. "Come on, Alfred. Just kill him. He's the reason you and Arthur aren't on good terms anymore. He broke your brotherhood with Arthur, made you hurt your brother, Matthew. He made you betray your friends and hurt them. He made you stay out of the war in Europe, Alfred… He made you turn your back on your friends and family. Because of him, you can't become your own person and make your own decisions. Everything you do is decided by what he does and wants, Alfred." He glanced at America, who only stared back with a blank face, as if not caring that he made die and not making any move to escape. "Kill him. And be free of this curse, Alfred."

Alfred hesitated, his hands shaking and face looking uneasy. Than, he remembered Arthur's words from before starting on this journey. "Wait," he said, turning back to Eric. "What will happen to the country if I kill him? What will happen to the land and the people? What will happen to…" Alfred put his sword down, "to us?"

Eric frowned. "Well," he said. "I suppose, someone else will be replacing you…" His eyes trailed off to America. "As for the land and the people… well, you kill America, you kill everything America represents."

Alfred dropped the sword. "…No," he said. "I can't do that. I can't kill him!"

Eric eyes trailed back to Alfred, his face blank. "Why not?" he asked.

"Because!" Alfred looked down. "Because…" Alfred thought about his answer. He thought back to everything that Arthur taught him, and everything he's been through in live, in his time as America. Alfred looked up with realization in his eyes. "He's me. He's a part of me, one I cannot get ride of. At least not yet." He looked away and held a hand to his chest, feeling something there. Alfred sighed. "Arthur was right. There was no point in doing this… I should've listened." He closed his eyes.

Eric stared at him for a moment, his dark and narrowed. "Arthur…" he muttered out darkly, eyes gazed over before shaking his head and he give out a small chuckled. He walked around Alfred and now stood in front of him, facing America. "I should've known. England always has been a bit mysterious and secretive… always doing things in the dark."

America smiled warmly. "But you can't fault him for that though," he said. "After all, he's only protecting those he loves…" he looked off to the side, his smile dropped into a frown. "Even if at times it's a bit overbearing..."

Eric hummed and nodded, eyes closed as the wind blew softly by. He then tuned towards Alfred and opened his eyes. Alfred's own blue eyes stared into Eric's mystic blue orbs. "Is this what you have chosen, Alfred F. Jones? Will you, or will you not kill America?" he asked.

"I will not," Alfred answered confidently, staring down at Eric.

Even though he looked confidant, Alfred was actually feeling very nervous inside. Something about this kid just didn't sit right with him, and it was making Alfred feel extremely uncomfortable in his presence.

Finally, after a moment of intense silence and narrowed eyes from Eric, the child smiled and said, "Good work, Alfred!" he patted Alfred on the shoulder, startling him.

"What?" Alfred was confused.

"You pass. But than again, I expected no less from someone like you really… someone of Arthur's own flesh and blood."

"What-? Ack!" Alfred winced in pain, a hand going to his heart. "What is…? Ack!" he fell to his knee. "What did you do to me?"

Eric smirked. "Nothing," he said. "I just gave you back what was rightfully yours. Yours and the others." His eyes trailed off to the sky.

"Wha-?"

Eric than moved his gaze to America. "Coming, America?"

"Yes," America answered, a small smile creeping up his lips as he glanced down at Alfred. "My job here is done anyways." He walked towards the white gate. "Good luck and goodbye, Alfred F. Jones. Thank you for serving as my host for so long. I now release you of your duty, until you come seeking my help again." He stood, back facing the white gate, where Eric sat on the top. "But for now, you are free from me, Alfred. Your life is yours. Do with it what you well. Call, if you need me. You know I'll always come for you." He bowed and turned into an eagle before flying off into the sky, heading back the way he'd came.

Eric looked up, his gold watch opened and in front of him. "Hmm, seems Arthur got free…" he whispered into the wind, than looked down at Alfred and smiled. " _The sage escapes_ …" he sang. " _The true meaning of the message… The horizon knows…_ " He motioned with his watched hand held up to the parting clouds, showing the place where the sky meets the land. "Goodbye for now, Alfred. Next time we meet, I hope you'll remember who I am."

The sun shone brightly over head and illuminated the sky. Alfred shielded his eyes away and called out. "W-wait! I still want to know who you are! And who the others I've met are!"

"Ahh, but Alfred," came Eric's voice from somewhere. "You already know them. You just need to remember."

Alfred tried to reach for the sun, but instead found himself blinded and soon floating in darkness. Than, Jack appeared.

" _In the right hand, death_ ," he said, holding out his right hand and a black book appeared in it. " _In the left hand, life_." Jack held out his left hand and a white book appeared. He smiled. " _An untilting winter scale_." Jack bowed; his hands held out like a scale still, and than faded back into the darkness, snow falling down as he went.

* * *

Alfred found himself opening his eyes to see Arthur standing in front of him, a silver box in his hands and a frown on his face as he glared down at the closed box.

"Arthur," Alfred whispered, staring up at him before looking around to see the others doing the same, all having a hand on one part of their body that ached with the burning pain of Freedom.

* * *

"Well than," said Eric, sitting in front of a long dinning table with a big smile on his face.

Other people sat off to the side and the table led all the way into the darkness. Some of the people could be identified as Jack, Oz, Even, Kenric, Lucas, Luna, and Ash.

"Shall we begin?"

* * *

 **Yeah, I know I jumped the gun. But there was just no other way I can think of to going about doing this!**

 **If you hadn't noticed, all my OCs are related to each other in some way and that is kind of important.**

 **Question Time!**

 **1: Who is Kenric's baby brother?**

 **2: What is Arthur's relationship with Jack?**

 **3: I cut off some words from the song, but not as much as the last one. So, what do you think this line in the song means or are referring to?**

 _The windmill of the sun_

 _The cradle of the moon_

 _A story of wandering_

 _A broken doll_

 _A man's corpse_

 _A dark story of wasted time_

 **Next Chapter: What The Hell Iggy!**

 **The truth finally comes out! But with it comes more questions and searching for answers. Just what have you been hiding from us England, or maybe I should say Arthur?**

 **Please Review!:)**


	8. What The Hell, Iggy!

**Declaimer: I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs and plot idea.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: What The Hell Iggy?!**

"Hey," said America, a small smile on his face as he stepped out of the darkness and into the dimly lit room. "Sorry I'm late. Been waiting long?"

Flames flickered to life and four others appeared out of the darkness. One was a tall man standing sideways on the back of the red couch, one hand on the gold rims while his purple eyes glanced at America. The one behind him was an Asian boy with a katana in hand, also standing sideways and facing the same direction as the taller man behind him. However, he was standing in front of the couch instead of in the back. Another was sitting on the arm of the couch, on the opposite side of the Asian boy, a smudged smirk on his face as his red eyes looked at America with amusement in them. A black eagle was resting on his shoulder. The last man was sitting crossed legged on the red and gold couch, his chin rested on the back of his hands as his green eyes stared at America, a gold barbary lion resting at his feet.

"Welcome back, America-san," said Japan, his face blank of emotions as he bowed his head a little, hands still gripping his katana and looking ready to take it out should he need to. America smiled back at him in return, bowing his head a little in greetings, his eyes still locked on the Asian's ever stoic face.

"You sure took your sweet time with him, Amerika," said the purple-eyed nation, a smile on his childish face.

"Shut up, you commie bastard," America snared at Russia, who only smiled back at him in return. America shifted his gaze to the man in the middle. "It's not like he's Arthur or anything. Right, England?"

England smiled. "Well…" he said. "Arthur actually had Eli Cromwell on his case…"

America let out a small laugh. "Guy was determined to get him back, hah?"

England can only smirk and shake his head at that. "Him, and his entire… how should I put it, British Isles and the Land Down Under…?" he glanced at America. "But than we'd be excluding some, so…"

America sighed. "So, all but Alfred than…? No wait… we also have Kiku… Gilbert… and Ivan…" he mused, going into a thinking position, his voice lowering as he went down the list. Than he finally looked up when he got it all sorted out. "Where are the others?"

"Kesesese," laughed the albino sitting on the side. America and England moved their gazes to him. "Do you mean the ones dead, captured, still with their host, out scouting, or the ones who just came back before you?"

America thought about it for a moment, before giving a reply that made England smile.

* * *

"I see you lot made it out alive," said Arthur, his eyes shifting up to look at them. "That must mean you've all separated from your nation self and have gone back to the old you."

The others looked at each other in confusion.

"What?" asked Alfred, slowly and painfully standing up. "What are ya saying, Iggy?"

Arthur sighed. "No matter," he said. "You'll find out soon enough anyhow. Now come along, chums. Lets get out of here before they find us." He handed the box back to Alfred and went to pick up the sleeping Peter into his arm.

"What do you mean find us?" asked Mathias. "Who will find us? Those guys we met?"

Arthur lifted Peter up and into his arms, a deep frown on his face as he glanced back at all of them with dull eyes. Then, his gaze shifted to the clock that now read 1:45. "NHS," he simply said, before turning and heading for the stairs.

"NHS," repeated Alfred, trying to catch up. "You mean my National Honors Society or your National Health Service?"

Arthur stopped alertly and turned to Alfred, his eyes now dark. "No," he said. "I mean Nation Hunter Society." And he turned back to walk down the stairs, but the others were frozen in their place for just a moment.

Finally, they snapped out of the shock and ran, disregarding the pain, to catch up with Arthur.

 _"Angleterre,_ wait!" Francis shouted after him, causing Arthur to stop mid step and let them catch up to him.

"What do you mean Nation Hunter Society?" asked Mathias.

"Exactly that," said Arthur, walking again. "Today, the day where most of the nations are gathering and no ISS or any other protection service were to be at the ready and present, because let's face it, it's a holiday. This is the day they've put their plans of hunting us into action… well actually, they started three years ago, after the terrorist attack, but have been planning it for a while now, and have only finished collecting their data's and getting everything ready... You could see the signs when some of the smaller countries or micronations didn't show up for meetings or be present around in general." The others stopped and thought about that. Arthur was right. Nations and Micronations were missing.

"But Arthur," Antonio spoke up. "How do you know this?"

Arthur stopped talking and went silent.

"You knew about this for a while now, didn't you?" accused Mathias, his eyes narrowed on Arthur's back.

"No," Arthur finally spoke up. "I didn't know about it until I felt them hunting in my grounds." He turned around and looked up at them with pleading eyes and a serious look on his face. "I'll tell you everything when we get back to my house, alright? But not now. Just," he looked down at Peter. "Not now." And he turned to begin descending again.

Mathias didn't seem to believe that, but followed Arthur down the stairs anyways.

Alfred frowned at him. "Fine," he said. "But you better tell us everything you know, England."

Again, Arthur stopped suddenly, as if shocked by electricity, and the others narrowed their eyes at him, but walked down to catch up with him anyways, hoping to get answers once they get back to his house. "Don't call me that," Arthur whispered.

"Hah/What?" questioned Alfred and Matthew.

Arthur turned his head around just a bit, eyes hidden behind his bangs. "From now on," he said, hesitating a bit, but finally stared them in the eye. "Be careful of how you address each other." He turned around and began walking. "Get use to your human names and addressing each other as such. Please." The others looked at each other and shrugged, before following. But Matthew had a weird look on his face as he stood still.

"Matt, coming?" Alfred called back, waiting for him with Francis a step below.

"Hum, ah, yeah," Matthew replied, running down to Alfred.

What they saw when they got out the door was shocking, yet at the same time, not really. After all, this was England, and England after 9, everyone knew, was a total war zone. Everything goes, especially on holidays. And this was already after 1!

The group made their way around the dark side of London, keeping their wits about them so as to not bump into anything dangerous. Not that they themselves weren't dangerous in general. No, on the contrary, they can be quite dangerous, but rather liked to avoid it if possible. The street was still very much busy and alife, lights were lit and cars, buses and taxies passed by in a blur. The rain was still going, but only came down as a little sprinkle.

Arthur stopped on the sidewalk and waved for a cab. Francis, seeing that they'd need more than one, went to stand next to him and waved for another. However, he put some distance between them when Arthur glared at him for standing too close to him.

Luckily, two cabs came at their call and parked at the same time. Alfred and Mathias got in with Arthur and Peter, who sat in the front with Peter still in his arms, refusing to let the boy go. Francis, Matthew, and Antonio followed behind.

Finally, they arrived home and Arthur got out, paid for the cab, and made his way towards the front door. At the same time, Francis and the others had just arrived and Francis quickly paid before practically running to catch up with Arthur, who was looking around every which way and walking very fast, Peter held tightly in his grasped.

"Good," Alfred and Mathias heard him whispered. "Dylan managed to keep them off…"

"Keep who off, Arthur?" questioned Alfred, also looking around. "The NHS?" Arthur only nodded, not bothering to correct Alfred's grammar, though he did frown at it.

"Wait, Ang-Arthur!" Francis called over, just as Arthur was at the steps of the door. Arthur stopped and waited for them to catch up. "How are we going to get in, mon ami?"

"Yeah," agreed Antonio. "I thought you said Dylan locked us out?"

Arthur merely stared at Antonio blankly before going up and turning the door handle. He pushed the door open and walked in, a grim look on his face.

Antonio's yaw dropped. "You lied to me again?" he realized, than shook his head and followed everyone in, his shoulders slumped from having been tricked again by the same person and almost died.

Francis patted him on the shoulder. "Come now, mon ami," he said. "Don't look so down, you were not the only one tricked this time around."

"That is so like him to do this," Mathias shook his head and walked in. "But I should've known." Matthew looked at him for farther explanation. "Norge once told me that the Master of the house always has access to the house." He sighed. "I shouldn't have forgotten that…"

Entering the house, the guys were met with an interesting sight.

"Hey," said Alfred. "I thought the party was suppose to be held at… what was the name?" he turned towards Matthew, who was beside him.

Matthew sighed and said, "St. Ermin's Hotel eh."

"Yeah, that place." Alfred turned to the front. "So why you all here?"

"And what the heck is up with this atmosphere-? Norge!" Mathias shouted and ran over to the ever stoic Norseman, who was standing beside Iceland. They both stood in between Romania and the Kirklands.

Iceland had his arms crossed and he looked none too pleased, probably because Norway had been nagging at him to call him big brother again. Norway did not look too pleased to be hugged by Mathias either, but took it anyways. He took Mathias' complaints and explanations of his adventures without much care, and the same went for the others. Matthew wondered where the other Nordics were…

Iceland was looking at Arthur, who was placing Peter down on the couch, next to the sleeping Wendy. Jett was standing over his charge, the New Zealander next to him. Alistair was sitting in the armchair that Arthur used to sit in, Dylan and Seamus standing either behind or beside him. Michelle had stood up to make space for Peter, gently shifting Wendy's head from her lap over to one of the pillows on the couch.

Now, she and the other Kirklands were all whispering something to each other, all their faces grim as Alistair handed Arthur a scroll of some sort, which had Arthur frowning at it as he took it and opened it up. He seemed to be reading it and eyeing the ones in the room all at the same time, almost as if cheeking them off the list. Than, he closed it up and sighed, going back to whispering something to Alistair and shaking his head, seeming to want to face-palm himself.

After them was Romania, sitting in the seat Michelle used to sit in. He was holding the sleeping Moldova on his lap as he kept saying something about leaving Bulgaria behind. Ivan, instead of going to Lithuania or China, was behind them and had a hand on Romania's shoulder, whispering things to him that Alfred was sure were treats. But Matthew was confused as he saw Ivan's warm, brotherly tender eyes. Was he trying to comfort Romania? Why? What was more shocking was when Romania handed the sleeping Moldova over to Ivan and out right cried for his lost friend.

Belarus was glaring at Moldova and Romania for getting her brother's attention and seemingly warm affection. Ukraine was lost. She was standing behind the Baltics with Belarus, and looking everywhere, her eyes meeting Alistair now and again, and looking down, a blush on her face while Alistair's eyes softened before Arthur brought it back to a glare again. Soon, that family seemed to be arguing, though it was mostly on Arthur and Alistair's part, the others just seemed to have been caught in it.

The three Baltics were off to the side, on the armchair Wendy used to inhabit, the two younger ones standing around it. Estonia was behind the chair and holding his laptop as he glanced down at the older Baltic while Latvia was standing off to the side and holding onto Lithuania's hand, telling him that Poland was a phoenix and that he'd be fine. Though when Arthur had come in with Peter, Latvia had glanced off to the side in worry for his younger friend.

Austria, who was sitting down in an armchair opposite from Alistair, had Kugelmugel sleeping on his lap and Hungary was standing beside him, looking at the crying Romania with a frown on her face. Austria, on the other hand, had his eyes set on a certain part of the room. His hands seemed to be twitching as his eyes landed on the only old piano in the room.

Switzerland didn't look too happy to be so close to Austria, but Liechtenstein had chosen to sit close to Hungary and so, he had no choice. Though he made sure that he was on the other side of the chair so he won't have a collision with Hungary or be too close to Austria.

It didn't help his mood any that beside him sat Germany, Veneziano clinging to him on the other side, while Roman was standing over him, yelling at him and telling Veneziano to stop crying and acting like such a coward. He was also insulting Germany, as always, and was trying to pray Veneziano off of him. Antonio, seeing Romano, smiled and went to him, in which Roman told him to stay away in a not so friendly way. Germany, as usual, had a stoic expression on his face, and even though he should've snapped at Romano by now, he did not. Instead, his blue eyes were on the Kirklands as well. By than, Alistair had even stood up and they were soon shouting in Old English that the others seemed not to understand, for they were going in rapid pace and often swished dialect or just language in general, going up and down the British Isle.

Belgium sat on an extra chair brought, in from the kitchen by Dylan, beside the three. Netherlands was standing over her and had a hand on her shoulder in comfort, though his face was also grim. In fact, Matthew and the others noted that all of them seemed grim and some were on the verge of tears.

Sitting on the floor were the Asian family, calmly sipping tea while the European chaos took place in the background. China was beside Hong Kong, who sat beside Taiwan, and in between her and China was Kiku. China looked around and sighed, seeming to miss South Korea as he muttered out something about not being annoyed or touched anymore.

Michelle seemed to have given up trying to understand and break up the fight by now, Francis taking her out of the conflict and placing her off to the side, sitting on the children's sleeping coach and having their heads rested on her lap instead so that she won't be sitting in-between their feet. The Australian and the New Zealander where standing over them with Francis. Alfred and Matthew had followed Francis and were now glancing back and forth between Alistair and Arthur, asking if anyone understood what they were saying. Francis tried to, but they were going way to fast for him to keep up, and the other Kirklands didn't seem to want to translate.

Finally Hungary snapped. "ALRIGHT!" she shouted, causing everyone's attention to turn to her, but the brothers continued fighting. Seeing this, Hungary whipped out her frying plan from under her dress and glared at them. "IF YOU TWO DON"T STOP ARUEING AND START EXPLAINING TO US WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW, I'M GOING TO MAKE ME HITTING PRUSSIA," even she winched a little at her own words, "SEEM LIKE CHILD'S PLAY!"

The two did not stop, but they did finally switch to somewhat understandable modern day English. Though they were still going fast and the only words the others could make out where something along the lines of Arthur collapsing because of a nutter headmaster of some school up in Scotland, whom Arthur called the Cherisher Cat. Than they caught something about Alistair having rum with him while Arthur was in pain, something about Halloween and students up in Scotland, than something about the list and nations separating and being hunted.

Finally, Alistair yelled out, "IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP US SAFE, YOU FACE LIKE A SKELPED ERSE WALLOPER (red faced (from either embracement or anger) idiot)!"

Arthur's eyebrow twitched. "ARE YOU SAYING THAT I'M REDER THAN YOU, YOU HOWLIN OLD JACKEY DOBBER (smelly old alcoholic jerk/idiot)?!" Arthur shouted out.

"HEY, DON'T YOU DARE USE MY INSULTS! AND YOU KNOW THAT WHAT ELY DID WAS FOR THE BEST!"

"THE BEST?! THE BEST?! THAT TOSSER IS DRAGGING US INTO YET ANOTHER WAR!"

"IT'S NOT LIKE WE COULD AVOID WORLD WAR III AT THIS RATE! BESIDES, IT WAS YOUR BRAT WHO OPENED THE DAMN BOX THAT YOU SEALED AWAY BEFORE COMING HERE!" Both of them were breathing heavily now, glaring daggers at each other.

"What?" Alfred spoke up, a look of confusion on his face, but Matthew, who was standing beside him, had his eyes hidden behind his bangs and held tight to Kumajiro, muttering something under his breath. "Iggy, what-?"

"The NHS," Kiku spoke up, sipping his glass of Tea, but looking a bit twitchy as he glanced off to the katana laying beside him. The others looked at him and Kiku stared into Arthur's green orbs, his face much more serious than usual. "Arthur-san, we must leave now."

Arthur recomposed himself and nodded his head, holding up his cane. "Everyone brace yourselves," he instructed, a giant green magic circle appeared underneath them all.

"Wait, Arthur!" Romania spoke up. "What is going on here-? Ack!" Romania fell to the floor, along with Austria, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Italy brothers, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, the Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine, the Asian family, minus Japan, and the Philippines.

The circle glowed and the box reopened itself, playing the same melody. Arthur frowned, but did not do anything as black and blue rose petals flew across the room. He only closed his eyes in a triesigh and brought down his cane, hitting it on the floor and causing the room to change to a different dimension.

"Where are we?" Mathias questioned from his place beside Norway and Iceland.

"A-a di-different… dimension," Norway splattered out, holding a hand to his burning shoulder and winching. "Arthur…"

Arthur opened his eyes and looked at everyone with a serious expression on his face. "NHS, otherwise known as the Nation Hunter Society," he began. "They were started a long time ago. Most likely all the way back to the Cold War, or prophase even World War I. Their purpose is to hunt the host of the countries and capture them. What they want is to either lock us up or kill us so that we won't be able to interfere with their plans for the world."

"Who are these people, Arthur?" Matthew questioned.

"… The leaders are rich members of society, some even politicians." Some gasped at that. Arthur closed his eyes. "The lower class, on the other hand, hates us because they were told that it is our fault for everything that had gone bad in the world." He paused to let that all sink in. "We where able to keep the members in government at bay, as there were not very many of them back then, but things spun out of control after what happened in 2014…"

"In 2014, we lost many lives," Jett spoke up. "The government were in shamble, and in to quickly fix it, we replaced government body in a hurry."

"And that was were we all went wrong," Joseph, formerly known as the personification of New Zealand, stepped up next to the Australian.

"And that is also where the small shift and strangeness from your government and certain citizens came from… and because of that, our Nation shelves, in order to protect us, decided to separate from us and send us away to a different place to hide ourselves," Michelle explained, coming to stand next to Arthur, the Kirkland brothers behind them. She held the sleeping Peter in her arms while Jett was holding onto Wendy.

"From now on," said Arthur. "The history of your country no longer matters. So, please remember to use your human names from this point forward."

"What do you-?" Alfred's question was cut off as Arthur pulled out the silver watch from Alfred's coat pocket.

Arthur stared at it for a moment, a warm, fond look in his eyes. Than, he started humming out a familiar tone to Alfred and Matthew as a small smile graced his lips. "Ahh," he said. "I remember this old watch…" he looked up at Alfred. "I had it made especially just for you, Alfred." He looked up. "I had Jack made it for me so that you would be able to fall asleep even if I'm not there to sing you the lullaby." Alfred and Matthew's eyes widened as they remembered that fact, as will as in realization with the others. "You threw it at me before you left home and started rebelling against me, though…" Arthur continued, handing the silver pocket watch back to Alfred.

"And I never heard that song again after that…" Alfred whispered, starring at the watch in his hands with wide eyes, now realizing why it was so familiar and where he and Matthew had heard the song in their dreams from.

"Neither did I," Matthew added in, lifting his head up to stare at Arthur. "After Alfred threw the watch at you, Arthur, you never opened it up again. And the silver watch was replaced… by a golden one."

Arthur smiled and held his hand up in a wave and Alfred could feel himself being pulled farther away from the group before him. "I gave it to you, so it's yours, Alfred," he said. "Do with it what you well."

"Wait!" he tried to run to Arthur, but to no avail. Because he was so focused on Arthur, Alfred and the others did not noticed that the two globes where moving together and overlapping, slowly becoming one. But Arthur noticed it, out of the counter of his eyes, he'd been watching and counting down the minutes it would be whole again.

"Goodbye Alfred. Keep a strong hold of each other so you don't become separated and end up in different places, now," instructed Arthur.

Everyone quickly grabbed hold of someone. Mei, formerly known as Taiwan, grabbed onto Jai Long, formerly known as Hong Kong's, red sleeve and Kiku's white sleeve kimono, but he gently pulled her hand off. Mei looked up at him in surprise, thinking he was going to leave her again just like he did in WWII. But unlike than, he smiled warmly at her, before turning towards Arthur.

It was the same with Natalia and Katyusha. Both had grabbed onto Ivan, but Ivan hand gently pulled their hands off of him, startling both. He smiled warmly at them and placed their hands in each other's before looking at his older sister and said, "Please take care of each other and yourselves, sisters."

He then turned towards Vladimir and handed him back the child. "Go with them, and stay safe," he said to the shocked Romanian before turning toward Arthur and began walking up to the Kirkland family along with Kiku. Both easily walked passed Alfred, who was running with all his might and reaching out for Arthur, but seemed to be getting nowhere.

"I'll be waiting for you in Palladia, if you wish to find me," said Arthur.

"Arthur/Kiku/Big Brother!" Alfred, Francis, Yao, Mei, and Natalia shouted out, just before they were all pulled into the white light with the others.

* * *

Arthur and his group emerged from the white gate and were met with two children and one man. Arthur bowed to one of the children, but glared down at the other.

"Lord Eric," he bowed to the blonde child in front of him, than glared at the other smiling child beside the blond. "Eli," he growled out.

"Hey Ely, Gilbert!" said Alistair, not bothering to greet Eric. Arthur had turned around to scold his brother for that, but Eric held him back.

"It's fine," he said. "Just let it go, Arthur."

"Kesesese," Gilbert laughed, going up to Alistair. "You guys are late."

The black haired boy next to Eric, whose name is Eli Cromwell, stepped up to greet Alistair and the others. Both of them laughed at something Eli had said before Eli turned his ancient gaze to Arthur. Arthur glared down at the boy, whose eyes had now become hidden by his round glasses.

"Hello Arthur," he greeted.

"Cat," Arthur growled out.

"Ahh, is that anyway to address your boss, little Artie?" he faked hurt, one hand on his heart and droplets of tears forming in his eyes. "You hurt this old man's feelings."

"You? An old man? You look like a child, you Cherisher Cat! And DON'T CALL ME LITTLE ARTIE!"

"Now, now, you two," Eric broke in, coming to stand in between them. "Let's not fight." He looked up at Arthur, who recomposed himself. "Shall we go inside and have some tea? My son's been looking forward to having tea with you again for a while now, Arthur." They started walking towards the white palace up ahead. "He kept on bugging Shiro-chan and asking him when you would come."

Arthur laughed. "I hope I didn't give Jack to much trouble," he said. He lowered his head and sighed deeply, tire. "Lord knows I owe him much already."

"Oh, you shouldn't worry too much about Jack, little Artie," laughed Eli. Arthur glared at him for the nickname. "He's Eric's favorite pupil, after all. If he could go up again Eric's successor and survive, and than managed to tame Eric's youngest child enough to marry her, than something like this is only a walk in the park to him, my dear Saint." Arthur made a face at that and Eric laughed.

"Mitsukuni, Lucien, Kenric, Takumi and the others will join us for tea later, Arthur," said Eric, walking towards the white palace up ahead. "Takumi said he had much to catch up with you on what is going on with the Walker family during his absent years in Japan."

"I see," said Arthur. "Where is he right now, my Lord?"

Eric let out a small laugh. "In Rivera, playing his part as its king and welcoming his four new guards."

Arthur smirked, his eyes sparked in amusment. "I see. Well, I hope he can handle them, then. Mathias and Tim can be quite a handful to deal with, after all."

* * *

"W-where are we?" Raivis shattered out, holding onto Toris as all three Baltics looked on at the many, many shelves of high pilling books that went all the way up to the ceiling.

"Holt, intruders!" guards dressed in white came running in with spears in their hands.

They made a circle around the three. Raivis gave out a squeaked and held up his hands along with Tori, who was in front of them as he was the eldest, and Eduard, who was right beside him, laptop still in hand and seeming to be working just fine.

"Weapons down boys," came a sweet female voice from behind the guards.

The Baltics looked towards the voice and the guards parted ways to reveal a little girl, most likely in her late years of elementary school or early middle. She had sea green eyes and light-green hair pulled up into two small curly pigtails, tied by a black and white laced ribbon.

"Lady Elise," the guards bowed to her.

"These intruders have come to still form our great library, my Lady," said one of the guards, indicating to the Baltics.

Little Elise looked a bit annoyed she gazed off to the side, her arms crossed.

"Oh, please do something about your guard dogs, Yanagi," said Elise.

The Baltics looked towards where she was glancing only to find a tall black haired teen stepping out of the shadow, a black book in hand and opened.

"Is that really how you address your partner, my dear Elise?" said the teen, looking up to reveal dark black eyes. He smiled at her annoyed look before turning to the guards. "Stand down," he ordered, than looked towards the Baltics, an unnerving and familiar glint in his eyes. "These are our new workers." He closed the book and the sound echoed throughout the hall, as if indicating that the fate of the Baltics had been decided and sealed with it.

As unnerving as staring into his eyes were, the Baltics found they could not turn away from the strange gaze that seemed to pierced right through them. It was so strong, it made Raivis move closer to Tori's, his eyes tearful and fearful of this mysterious teen. Than, Yanagi's eyes flashed demonic red and the Baltics could remember no more as they fell to the floor, unconcious.

* * *

"B-Brother," said Elise, holding onto the Swiss and hoping he'd wake up soon. "I'm scared."

It was raining and the sky was dark. The small girl found herself and her unconscious brother sitting on the muddy ground as soldiers in black pointed their swords at them.

"Alright, guys," came a voice from behind the men. "Break it up."

Elise watched with tearful eyes as three men stepped out of the darkness. Two of them had black hair while the other had gray hair and was wearing glasses. All three were wearing black gats (traditional Korean hats for men) and hanboks. The man to the left wore a lighter shade than the other two, though.

"Your highnesses, High Priest," the guards bowed to the new arrivals.

The men now stood over Elise, who looked up at them with wide green eyes of fear after hearing what the guards had called the men.

The gray haired man smiled and crushed down to her height. "Hello miss," he said, offering her his hand to take. Elise hesitated for a moment, not sure if she should take his hand or not. Than, she looked down at her brother.

"Tch. Damn that old man," the man in the middle whispered, causing Elise to look up at him and for the other man to turn around. He than picked Elise up into his arms and Elise let out a small cry at the sudden action, causing her to let go of Vash. "Disappearing off to Palladia and leaving me here with his work and his mess."

"Brother!" Elise cried out, watching him fall into the other man's lap.

"Now, your highness," said the man. "That wasn't nice. Please be more respectful to your father."

The other man beside the crown prince let out a laugh. "Yukito," he said. "This is Toya we're taking about. What did you expect? Especially if it's concerning uncle Eli."

Toya smiled at his friend and said, "Kenric, take the… other brat."

Kenric nodded his head at his cousin's command, and went to pick up Vash from Yukito's lap. "Don't worry," said Kenric, standing up with Vash in his arms. He looked at Elise and smiled warmly at her, his blue eyes sparkling. "You'll both be fine." Elise found her vision blurring the longer she stared into Kenric's mystic blue eyes.

"Let's get out of this rain, your highnesses," said Yukito, also standing up and bowing at them in respect.

The three regrouped and walked off, the guards behind them.

"Hey, Ken," Elise, barely conscious, heard Toya spoke, a smirk on his face. "Aren't you disappointed it's not Mathias who came here?"

"Oh, I already knew that Mathias won't end up here," Kenric replied back. "Right now, he's probably…" he looked off to the sky.

* * *

"Oy, Denmark, wake up," Lukas kicked the sleeping Danish man.

"Ahhh! Where is my sister?!" the Dutchman freaked out, and the Icelander had to hold him back from jumping off the log boat and getting them tied up instead of guarded. "She'd better not be with that Spaniard! Spain! Touch my sister and die, you basterd!"

"Ahh," Mathias held a hand to his head as he sat up. "What happened?" He looked around. "Where are we?"

"On a boat," Emil answered none chattily, still holding on to the panicking Tim, who was freaking out some locals on the streets with his rash behavior. "Going to, I think, the palace." He glanced at the huge castle in the middle of the city.

Mathias stared at him and his vision finally cleared, giving him a better look at the white land filled with rivers at every corner.

* * *

"Ahh! I thought I grabbed brother!" the blonde haired woman shouted out, pulling her hands away from the brown haired man.

"I knew someone pulled me from behind, but I didn't expect you, Bella," Antonio smiled at the Belgian woman. "Man it's hot." He fanned himself with his shirt collar before standing up and held out a hand to Emma to help her up.

"Where are we anyways?" he questioned as Emma stood next to him, both looking out into the volcanic land before them and paled.

* * *

"Where are we, aru?" questioned Yao, looking around at the tall rock mountains and feeling a bit panicked. Jai Long and Mei lifted their heads up, feeling the after affects of the landing. "This looks like ancient china aru!"

* * *

Roderich held on to the white haired boy and glared up at the white soldiers. Elizabeta was standing in front of them, holding out her frying pan against the white guns, looking fierce and ready to strike despite being outnumbered.

* * *

"Great!" Lovino shouted out from atop the metal building. "Now where the hell are we?!"

Ludwig looked down into the advanced and polluted city with flying cars, holding the uncurious Feliciano in his arms.

* * *

Vladimir shivered at the cold of the winter air, holding the child close to him to keep him warm and asleep. "I-it feels like we-we're i-i-in R-Russ-a all o-over again," he shattered out. "Ohhhh, p-please don't-don't w-wa-wake up, D-De-mitri." He looked down at the child stirring in his arms. "Don't wake u-up."

"Hey! You three!" came a shout from behind them. The three turned toward the voice only to find a small, white haired man dressed in a white kimono sitting on a sled pulled by three snow wolves. "What are you doing out here wearing that kind of clothes?! Oh, wait! Are you guys looking for work in the palace?"

The three looked at each other, and finally Natalia answered, "Yes."

The man smiled. "Well why didn't you say so," he said. "Come on, I'll give you a ride. I was going up there anyways. I have blankets." They rushed over and the man handed Vladimir a warm blanket to wrap around himself and Dimitri in.

Katyusha sat in front with the man, who introduced himself as Peter White, while the others sat in the back with the food that Peter was bringing to the palace. As they road to the palace, snow started falling.

"Ahh…" said Peter, looking up with a small smile on his face and opening his green eyes to look at the sight. "Shiro-chan's in a good mood today." He looked back down on the road. "Hopefully, it stays long enough for us to get to the palace…" the wolves run faster at their master's command.

* * *

Alfred was laying face down in the grass, the silver watch sitting on top of a black book and opened beside him, ticking away and playing Arthur's lullaby.

Barely conscious, he could make out the sound of small feet walking towards him. The child stopped in front of him and Alfred could make out white socks and flats. Zori (traditional Japanese shoes)?

"Hey Sho!" the boy called out to his friend. "I found another one here!"

"That's the last one, right? No more, right?" the kid named Sho called back, coming closer. "I'm already carrying two, and one of them looks like a perverted creep, Ru! I'm afraid he's going to touch me in his sleep!"

"Oh, stop complying. He's a sleep."

"I won't be so sure about that!"

Ru sighed. "Oh, would you just stop being such a worry wart already, Sho!"

"I'm not worrying, I'm afraid for my-! Ah-! You come here and carry him, Ru!"

"Sho, I'm already carrying this bear for that maple leave guy, aren't I?"

Maple leave? Perverted Creep? So Francis and Matthew ended up with him.

"Yeah, well," said Sho, sounding none too pleased. "Now you're carrying that black tome, that watch and that guy too! He's suppose to be the third biggest, but I'm pretty sure he's heavier than these two combined!"

Ru laughed and picked up the black book and the watch on top of it. "Look's like your father's watch, Sho," he said, closing it and than picking up Alfred.

Sho, who Alfred could now see, avert through blurring vision, was a white haired, blue eyes boy with fair skin, dressed in a blue kimono tied by a black obi. He was carrying an unconscious Matthew and Francis on both his small shoulders.

Sho looked to be a kid still in his late years of middle school, so the two adults towered over him and it looked a bit funny. If he weren't in this situation, Alfred would've laughed at that. Also, the child reminded Alfred of someone, but he couldn't quite figure out whom. Though the image was coming to him. A man in white, standing under the dark sky of London…

"Sorry about that," Ru spoke up, bring Alfred's attention back to him.

The child looked to be around the same age as Sho, and had blonde hair and blue eyes. Just like two others Alfred had met before him…

"I'm afraid it's not the lullaby that's going to put you to sleep mister." Alfred looked into the boy's blue eyes and soon found himself falling into slumber.

Everything became dark and only the sound of Arthur's Lullaby rang out within the void.

* * *

 **To be continued…**

 **If you like this, than look forward to** ** _In Search For Truth_** **, the sequel to this. But it'll be a bit AU, or a lot, however you want to look at it, and it'll tell you about the past that they all shared in this world and their ties to each other.**

 **Also, I plan to go back a few years and explain (a bit) the reason** ** _Ivan_** **calls** ** _Arthur_** **'Big Brother' in _A Change Of Pace: Year 1,_ a cross-over between Harry Potter and Hetalia that's already up. Than you'll find out what happened to Kiku in second year, what job Prussia got in Year 3 and what happened with Denmark in Year 4. I plan to get that over with first before doing ****_In Search For Truth_** **. I may also do other stories in the earlier timeline as well, so it may take a while. Otherwise the idea would just be stuck in my head until it changes or I forget about it.**

 **Anyone got what school up in Scotland I was referring to?**

 *****Also, if anyone wants to know more about the Cherish Cat mentioned in this story, check out my other story, _Breaking Glass_. Just read the last two chapters or just the last chapter to get a sense of things. It's only the last chapter that really connects though. It'll also explain the reason Arthur doesn't like Eli.**

 **Question a Time!**

 **1: What is Arthur's relationship with Eli and why does he seem to hate him? (Hint, know anything about England and Cromwell?)**

 **2: Can you guys gave me give me the chain of connection between my OCs and the Hetalia characters?**

 **3: Why did Ivan want Vlad and Dimitri/Moldova to go with his sisters?**

 **4: Who does Ru and Sho remind Alfred of?**


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